Crescent Hope
by MissAmyJessica
Summary: *After Breaking Dawn* Nessie appears 16 years old, and she's almost stopped growing. Jacob confesses something to her that she never expected, and someone, or something is terrorising Forks, and brutally murdering the wolves...
1. Race

**Race**

**Renesmee:**

Life was pretty good right now. You'd think being a half human-half vampire teenager would be awkward, but I loved it.

I was born 6 and half years ago, even though I'm 16 right now. My dad is a vampire, and my mom was human when I was born, although she's a vampire now. I grow and learn much faster than humans. My parents don't age, so my dad is 17 and my mom 18. Soon I won't age either. I live in Forks, Washington. It rains almost every day, and the days it doesn't it's very cloudy.

The only problem with being like this was that there were so many childhood things I missed, mainly because I hadn't had a childhood. One of these things was school.

Sure, once I stopped growing I could go, but I never got to have any friends either. The only people I knew outside my family were family friends whom I rarely saw, and the few people who knew what I really was.

There were occasions when I went out with my mom or dad into town, but if we bumped into someone they knew, I had to be 'a visiting friend'. It kind of got a bit lonely sometimes, being such a rarity, and not knowing many people.

I sleep and have a heartbeat, unlike my parents, and aunts and uncles and grandparents... well the vampire ones anyway. They aren't really related, my grandpa Carlisle created my grandma Esme, my Aunt Rosalie, my Uncle Emmet, and my dad, Edward. My other aunt and uncle, Alice and jasper, kind of just showed up years ago, long before my mom came along. My dad made my mom, Bella, a vampire soon after I was born. We are the Cullen family.

I'm proud to be this hybrid of half-human/half-vampire, it's who I am. Besides, I fit in better with humans than my family. Although my skin isn't as icy cold as theirs, it is a little warmer than humans. My skin doesn't sparkle in the sun like theirs, it glows. My eyes are the same beautiful chocolate brown that my mothers were before she became a vampire, which I love. My family's eyes are all ranging from gold to black- depending on how 'thirsty' they are. They aren't like usual vampires, they only hunt animals. I'm as fast and tough as my family, which is definitely a plus/ I can live on animal blood or human food, but to be honest human food is lumpy, slimy and tastes horrid most of the time. There are only a few human foods I'm willing to eat, eggs are one of them. Whenever I asked her why I loved eggs so much, she looked like she would blush if she still could, and mumbled something about a honeymoon. I figured I was better off not knowing.

"Nessie, honey, are you coming with us?" I heard a voice ask behind me. It was my dad. He had kind of short bronze coloured hair; he was lean like me, and around 6feet tall. I looked almost exactly like him, except my hair was almost down to my waist in beautiful ringlets. I get my curly hair from my human grandpa Charlie, my mom's dad.

I hadn't seen Grandpa Charlie is a while. He was one of the two humans who knew that my family and I weren't exactly human. Although he didn't want to know the whole story. I was glad he knew. I really loved him, and it would be awful if I couldn't see him. I suddenly realized my dad was still waiting for an answer.

"Ness?" he asked again, getting my attention.

"Oh sorry. Where are you going?" I asked curiously.

"Your mom and I are going hunting." He replied. Only now I noticed how dark his eyes were, they were almost the exact same dark golden brown colour as Jacob's skin I compared absentmindedly.

Jacob was one of my best friends, and a werewolf for part of his life. He could phase from human to wolf anytime he wanted. It was so cool. I hadn't seen him lately. Maybe he could come with us...

"No Jacob is... uh... out of town, sorry sweetie," It was kind of annoying sometimes that he could read minds. Everything you were thinking he knew instantly, my mom was the only lucky one in this house, her mind was shielded somehow, and he couldn't read her thoughts.

My dad looked kind of awkward. I thought nothing of it though; my dad didn't like Jacob much. "No thanks, I'm not thirsty so I'll pass." I murmured, finally answering his question. Alice was taking me shopping soon anyway, and my dad spent ages hunting. He and my mom ran so slow. When we ran full speed it was like lightning, they barely ran faster than a human pace.

He chuckled once the ruffled my hair as he walked past. "I'll see you later then; don't max out Alice's card whilst you're out!"

I was planning a whole new wardrobe, so I wouldn't make any promises. I heard him chuckling again outside, as he was listening to what I was thinking. I picked up a magazine off the glass coffee table, and started to leaf through it.

It was a few hours later when Alice's small slender frame shot down the stairs, so fast she was almost a blur, an excited smile on her tiny face. A dark pixie bob was framing her face, the spiky ends coming out in all directions. It was her classic look. Her dark golden haired husband Jasper followed behind her, they were always together.

"Hey Alice, hey Jasper." I said over my magazine.

"Hey Nessie," she grinned, "Guess what I just had a vision of!"

Alice had strange powers like my dad, except hers weren't annoying. She could see into the future. The problem was that she couldn't see anything to do with me or Jacob and the other members of the wolf pack.

I put down my magazine. "Tell me," I smiled back, her moods were contagious, or maybe that was just Jasper. He could change someone's' mood, just by being in the same room as them. He could make you feel any emotion at all. Plus, he came in handy during fights, I'd been told. "You know I'll never be able to guess."

"That shoe store in town just got those shoes in you've been waiting for, I reserved them for you, and we can go get them later!"

"Oh my god, thank you Alice so much!" I sang as I hugged her. Alice knew I had a weakness for shoes and anything to do with fashion, that's why we went shopping together so much. "So when can we leave?"

"Maybe in about an hour, Rose wants me to help her get out all her summer clothes, and believe me, there are loads! Almost as many as me!" She laughed.

Rosalie was renowned for her fashion sense, second only to Alice, and her beauty. My mom wasn't really into clothes. Rose had to completely rearrange her closet every few months though, so she was always in on the trends.

"Okay, I'm gonna go see if Uncle Emmett wants a rematch after I beat him in that race yesterday! Uncle Jazz you want to help?" It was fun to race Emmett. He was the most competitive vampire in the family, but he wasn't really the fastest. The only person in the house no-one would race anymore was my dad. He was lightning fast. I was glad I'd inherited that from him.

"No thanks! I'm gonna go catch up with your mom and dad, and anyway, I don't want to be around when Emmett loses, those tantrums he gets himself into..." he trailed off smiling and shaking his head.

I started smiling too. When he lost yesterday he almost ripped the forest down. It was hilarious to watch. Emmett was the strongest member of the family, he was very buff and had short curly black hair, and he was married to Rose, who with her long flowing golden hair, and the looks that any model would be envious of, was the hottest vampire in the world. No contest. Well I guess any model would be envious of any of the Cullens, we were all beautiful.

"Just don't get dirt in your hair this time; you have to look good when we go out." Alice mocked.

"Sure thing Alice, see you later," I laughed.

Jasper and Alice sped off up the marble staircase, leaving me to go and find Emmett. I eventually found him on the edge of the Cullen lawn, helping Esme work in the garden. The garden was amazing, but my family were intent on creating perfection, as if we weren't perfect enough.

"Well, well, little niece, how can I help you today?" He grinned menacingly; he already knew what I wanted.

"Well I'm guessing you want a re-match, but I wouldn't if I were you. Isn't it embarrassing enough having your butt kicked by your 'little niece' once?" I taunted him.

"No way. To your mom and dad's cottage and back. Esme, will you do the honours?"

My grandma Esme sighed and rolled her eyes, but started anyway. "Take your marks..."

I flexed my muscles and got into a sprinting start position, as did Emmett.

"Get set..."

Emmett looked over at me and grinned. I just stuck my tongue out; I knew he was trying to throw my game.

"GO!" Esme shouted.

I sped through the air, already ahead of him in my first pace. The wind whipped at my face and I felt Emmett push himself harder. Suddenly he was right beside me, but my stride didn't falter. Like Emmett, I pushed myself even harder. He'd obviously been practicing, but there was no way I'd let him beat me.

We both sped round my parent's cottage nestled far into the deep woods, and I got the advantage on the inside track, I lightly leaped onto a branch and swung myself till I was practically flying through the air, gaining an advantage Emmett's growls resounded beneath me as I gained further and further ahead. I leapt back to the ground a few meters ahead of him.

Then suddenly, new sounds, new feet speeding alongside us. I recognised my mother and fathers laughter. It seemed as if they'd appeared out of nowhere. My dad tackled Emmett to the ground with a swift bound. My mom and I sped ahead hand in hand, laughing together, whilst behind us Emmett growled furiously. I reached home before he even managed to get up.

**Edward:**

"I think we can stay a little longer, don't you?" Bella murmured seductively in my ear, a sly smile playing on her lips, "Everyone thinks we're hunting."

We were tucked up in our little cottage together, we'd gone hunting for about 25 minutes, enough to satisfy us, but Bella had other ideas and I certainly didn't disagree. We'd been here for a few hours now.

"Well, Emmett and Nessie are planning a race and round our cottage is the usual route. We wouldn't want them to know what we _really _get up to when we go 'hunting'".

"Who cares," Bella whispered in my ear in-between her fierce kisses. She wrapped her legs round my waist, in a vice like grip.

_"On no Nessie is going to win again! Just great, she is showing off so much, maybe I could slip past her round the cottage..." _I heard Emmett thinking furiously as he and Nessie raced towards the cottage.

_"Ha-ha poor Uncle Emmett, he's such a baby, he'll have a huge tantrum when I beat him again." _Renesmee was thinking. I could hear the smugness in her thoughts.

"Nessie and Emmett are coming up fast, let's go help Nessie win," I grinned and winked at my beautiful wife, as I unwrapped her from me.

"Anything to help your precious daughter," she grumbled running her hand through her long mahogany hair. I just smiled and pulled her up from the bed.

We crept out the cottage so we were running parallel to Emmett and Nessie, through the thick jade of green. We laughed together as we saw the determination on the racers faces.

I leapt away from Bella and pinned Emmett to the ground in one swift move, he snarled ferociously as Nessie got closer and closer to the finish line. He eventually threw me off and pushed himself harder into the ground. It was too late though. Nessie had already won.

**Renesmee:**

"Yes!" I screeched, as I reached the house while Emmett was still on the ground, "Yes, yes, yes!"

"No" Emmett shrieked, angry as ever. I knew a tantrum was brewing, he was about to explode. "You cheated" he snarled at my dad and me. I just grinned; my dad had exactly the same expression on his face as me.

"Like father, like daughter," my mom grinned at me, as Emmett stalked off into the forest, ripping branches from trees as he went.

I laughed and so did my mom and dad, I heard Alice's tinkling laugh join in as she danced over to us, Rosalie was not far behind her smiling at me.

"You are incredible," she giggled, "so anyway, Alice told me about your shopping trip soon and I was wondering if I could join you."

"Rose, of course you can come! I'd love you to. Maybe if mom comes we could have an all girl trip ..." I looked over at my mom expectantly. I knew she hated shopping, but an all girl shopping trip sounded good right now. I could always hope.

"Of course I'll come! We haven't spent some time together in ages, and an all girl trip sounds nice, maybe we should ask Esme as well?" she said cheerfully.

I was so shocked, but I was so glad she was coming.

"Wow mom thank you! I love you so much." I hugged her with happiness.

"So Nessie, how come you haven't used your gift recently?" my dad asked curiously behind me.

I'd completely forgotten about my talent. I could put my palm against someone's face and show them anything I wanted to. I knew it was how I would communicate a lot when I was younger, but I talk all the time now. I never really have any reason to use it.

"I don't know, I guess I haven't needed to," I shrugged, by saying so I put my hand against his face and showed him a picture of us together. "I love you dad," I told him.

"Oh come on, people!" Alice moaned, "Shops close in 5 hours, and we need to get going now so we can actually get some shopping done!"

"Sorry Alice," everyone chimed in unison. Alice was so predictable; she was so impatient when it came to shopping.

"Let's go ask Esme if she'll come with us," my mom laughed. We all started running towards the house.

It took us mere seconds to reach the huge house, where most of the Cullens lived. I guessed that Emmett had stalked round to the house sometime during our shopping conversation, when I saw him glaring down at Edward from a second story window. My dad just laughed and pulled me against him in a tight hug.

"Esme?" Alice sang as we reached the main hall. She spoke hardly louder than a human would in a normal conversation, but one of the good things about being vampires (or half-vampire) meant you had super hearing. Esme came from the high-tech study, smiling as always.

"So, who won?" she asked.

"Nessie did," my mom said harmoniously "although she did have a little help from Edward here."

"I should have guessed," she sighed, "as if he would let Nessie lose to Emmett. Now I know why he was in such a bad mood when he got back to the house."

"Anyway grandma Esme, me, mom, Rose and Alice are going shopping, and we were wondering if you'd like to join us?" I asked her.

"How could I miss an all girl outing!" she said, clearly happy to be invited along.

"Okay, we're all happy to be going shopping, now let's go! Bella, Nessie and Rose, you go in Bella's Ferrari. Esme you come with me in my Porsche." Alice said, faster than usual, irritated with our slow planning.

We all made our way into the garage; it had started to lightly rain, and Alice groaned, worried about her hair no doubt.

Jasper, my dad, and even Emmett came down to wave us off, and I absentmindedly wondered where grandpa Carlisle was. I guessed he was at work, he was a Doctor amazingly enough. I didn't have any problem with the smell of human blood, but most of my full vampire family still lusted for it. It hardly bothered Carlisle at all, he worked with casualties all day, but everyone else tried to stay away from too many humans at once.

We waved goodbye to the husbands on the front porch as we pulled away from the driveway, to have a fabulous afternoon as a family.


	2. England

**England**

"Oh my god, these shoes are amazing!" Rosalie gasps as the server brings them out for me. "I can see why you wanted them so bad. Nessie, you know we have the same size feet, and-"

"Not a chance Rose, these are all mine" I grinned at her. She just pouted.

These shoes were a gorgeous teal stiletto, with lighter navy suede around the bottom edge. The ribbon wrapped round your ankles to make a beautiful bow on the outside ankle of your foot. They were perfection in my eyes.

"Mom, I can get them can't I?" I sang angelically. She was a sucker for a puppy dog face, and I was an expert.

"No problem," she said, reaching for her credit card, "but you might grow out of them if your feet grow anymore, so Rose might get them in the end." She winked at Rose, who smiled a huge smug smile. After mom had paid for the shoes she and Esme went off together, chatting.

Alice however was off in her own little world, shoe world apparently. She had about 3 different servers coming out the store room in a constant stream carrying boxes upon boxes of shoes. Alice was probably going to buy every single pair in the shop at this rate!

My mom Bella and grandma Esme were quietly looking round the small, ancient, but trendy shop. It was my favourite shop in the whole world. There had to be a million different shoes in there, which changed every time we went there.

They were pretending to be interested, but I knew that they'd rather be somewhere else... with their husbands probably. I wonder why I hadn't seen grandpa Carlisle round the house today. He was always probably working, I guessed.

I went to sit by Alice as the tilted her foot this way and that, so she could see a creamy pink peep-toe shoe on her foot, from every angle. Suddenly her face went very blank, and the server was trying to get her attention. I knew Alice was having a vision, I'd seen it happen enough times.

Finally she was back herself. "Sorry, I was daydreaming," she laughed to the server as an excuse; the woman smiled and gave Alice another pair of shoes.

"So what did you see?" I curiously asked her, once the woman had walked away.

"There are some other vegetarian vampires like us in the area, they smelled us and will come in the shop to say hello in about 3 minutes." Alice explained to me.

"Are they friendly?" I asked her nervously.

"Look people its fine!" Alice whispered smiling, as Rose, Esme and my mom had gathered round once they heard. "Go be normal!"

I smiled and laughed, when a bell signalled the shop door opening. Three vampires walked in the door. It was easy to tell from their golden eyes, pale skin, and beautiful faces, that they were just like us. Alice approached them smiling, with me, Rose, mom and Esme behind her.

"Hi," Alice sang friendlily, "I'm Alice, this is Rosalie, Bella, Esme, and Renesmee, or Nessie for short." She said, pointing us all out.

These vampires were about my age, one of them walked forward to Alice.

"I'm Emma," she spoke in a British accent, "this is Helen, and Sarah." Emma said, pointing to each girl in turn.

Emma had honey gold hair down to her collarbones, which fell in perfect waves. She was the tallest of the three and she wore some dark skinny jeans, and an olive printed t-shirt. Helen looked almost identical to Alice, except her hair was a wavy light chocolate brown that came just to her shoulders. She wore jeans and a white shirt, under a red jacket. Sarah had very long dark hair that was a contrast against her pale skin; she had huge doe eyes and looked the most nervous out of the three. She was wearing jeans too, and a floral print top.

"It's very nice to meet you." Alice smiled.

"Likewise. We are visiting America from England, and we love to shop!" Emma laughed. We all laughed with her. "Nessie, if you don't mind me asking, why your eyes are so human, and I can smell blood running in your veins. I can hear a heartbeat... you sound human?"

"Oh no it's fine; I'm just partly human that's all. I was born when my mom was human. This is my mom here." I told the small group whilst hugging my mom.

"Wow, you sound like one-of-a-kind!" Helen grinned. "Hey! You guys have the same eyes as us... do you only live off animals?"

"Yup, we don't like to be monsters." Rosalie joked.

"So how many are you living like this?" Sarah questioned.

"9 in total, everyone except me as a husband at home." I told them. "We live in Forks - about an hour away."

"You're very welcome to come back with us and meet them, although we were planning on shopping a while longer." Alice offered.

"We'd love to; we were planning on shopping a little while longer as well anyway." Emma told us. "Maybe we could meet up later?"

Plans were made to shop for a few more hours, then go back to the house with the English vampires. They seemed very nice, and I was hoping we could be friends. I don't really know any humans apart from Grandpa Charlie or Sue. I grew too quickly, even though it was slowing down, but still, anyone that didn't know what I really was would get suspicious.

I had a once over round the shop, making sure there wasn't anything else I fancied, then Rose, mom, Esme and me helped Alice with all her bags of shoes. We made a trip to the car then went back into town. We walked at a slow human pace, but it really annoyed me, I wanted to be shopping faster.

"Hey mom?"

"Yeah Ness?"

"Thanks for coming with us; I know you don't really like these kinds of things"

"I like spending time with you and seeing you happy."

"I love you mom," I smiled back at her.

"I love you too Ness." She smiled back.

Shopping was Alice's', Roses', and my priority for the next few hours. We seemed to buy at least one item from every shop we went in, I had so much fun. In the end I did get to buy loads of summer clothes, as did Alice. We were only allowed to wear clothes once – it was the Alice law, I smiled to myself. We always had to be looking fashionable, and wearing clothes more than once apparently wasn't.

Rose came out the changing room wearing a deep red satin dress, which had a slit against her thigh. It reaches the floor, in a blood red cascade. And saying it showed off a lot of her cleavage wouldn't exactly be an overstatement. I think I heard the male shop assistants jaw drop open. I looked round. No, make that every single male in the shop was staring at Rose with their jaws open. I think one guy was about to start drooling.

"You look amazing Rose, now go back in that changing room before all these guys' wives and girlfriends come a get you for stealing their guys!" I laughed.

"As if any of them are good enough for me!" she giggled quietly as the guys looked away. "I am so getting this dress, it is amazing."

"Completely..." Alice trailed off and her face went blank. "Emm will like it too," she winked.

"Come on guys, I think that's enough shopping for today," Esme mocked, eyeing the huge pile of shopping bags piled up beside us. "Let's go meet up with Emma, Helen and Sarah."

We made our way to the main square where we found the English vampires waiting for us there. It seemed they'd out-shopped us, from the number of bags in their arms.

"So do you guys want to follow us in your car? Or did you run here?" My mom asked.

"We came by car; it's parked in the East car park." Emma said.

"Good, we're parked there too. Let run round the back roads to get there faster." Alice laughed.

We all sped off through back alleys, anyone who saw us would have seen a racing blur go by, and would have thought they were going mad. We laughed as we ran, and reached the car park in seconds.

**Bella:**

I had to admit, I didn't really like these girls. They'd seemed to just pop out of thin air. They were nice and friendly; I guess I was just being a little overprotective of Nessie.

I drove behind Alice, with the English behind us. The sun was just setting behind the misty fog, and darkness was starting to creep in. WE turned the last bend in the Cullen drive and pulled our cars into the garage.

"Wow," Emma breathed, "this is your house? It's amazing!"

"Standard decor for American vampires," Nessie joked. "Do you guys live alone in England?"

"No we live with 3 of our sisters, Hannah, Becky and Grace. No husbands," Helen smiled.

"One day sis, one day," Emma shook her head. Sarah just rolled her eyes.

Nessie took it upon herself to give the girls a tour of the house, I could hear them still chatting away somewhere upstairs.

"So Edward, is Nessie okay up there?" I probed.

"Bella, love, stop worrying. They're fine. I can hear everything they're thinking," He soothed, "Ness just wants some friends that aren't family."

"Oh." I felt my face fall. I knew I was over-reacting. Of course Ness anted some friends that weren't family. Edward turned my face to his and kissed me. It was an intense sort of kiss. Not one that should be done in company. "Let's go to the cottage." I gasped, out of breath already.

Edward smiled my favourite crooked smile and took my hand as we raced towards the cottage. I heard Emmett laughing back at the house, and made a mental note to make him regret it.

**Renesmee:**

"Eww Matt," I muttered quietly to myself, as I saw my mom and dad racing towards their cottage. There was only one reason they ever went there anymore... "So guys," I asked the English vamps, "do you have any powers?"

"Powers?" Emma repeated confused, "Oh you mean like special talents? Yeah we do." She smiled. "Wanna see?"

"You bet," I grinned.

"Helen you go first," Emma said.

Helen grinned back at me and went to the huge bay window. "My skill comes in handy when we want to hunt. I can kind of call animals, and get them to do what I want." She closed her eyes and became very still. In the next few minutes about 20 birds of different breeds shot out of the trees and started circling the house, 3 grizzlies appeared from the edge of the forest at the same moment. As soon as Helen opened her eyes the animals appeared confused, and slinked and flew back into the forest.

"Oh my god that is amazing!" I almost screamed.

Emma laughed and went to stand by Helen. "Watch this." She grinned. She seemed to be staring at one small oak tree on the edge of the forest. It had been planted about a year after I was born. In mere seconds, where here once was a baby oak, there now appeared to be a 50 year old oak in its place. After a few more seconds it returned to its babyish size.

"You can make things grow and shrink?" I asked shocked. These people made my families skills look lame.

"Yup, anything," Emma smiled, "I can make hair grow too, which is kinda weird." She turned to Helen who suddenly seemed to have waist length milk-chocolate hair. "Except I can't make hair 'shrink'."

"Thanks Emma," Helen complained sarcastically narrowing her eyes at Emma. "You know I like it short."

Emma just giggled. "Does it work on non-living things too? Like rocks and stuff?" I asked her.

"Yeah, it comes in handy during a battle. I can make walls out of pebbles," she smiled. "Sarah, show her your talent!"

Sarah stuck her tongue out at Emma. "My talent is boring," she grinned. She put her hand out palm upwards and it looked like her hand was on fire all of a sudden. She closed her hand and the flames went out. "I'm trying to work on it...I can't do anything else though."

"Cool" I grinned, "You guys have amazing powers. All I can do is this..." I put my hand up to Emma's cheek and showed her the oak tree shooting up. She stiffened as if shocked but didn't move away.

"Amazing," she breathed, "so you can show anyone anything like that?" Helen and Sarah, not knowing what I'd done, relaxed as they heard.

"Yeah" I grinned.

We spent a lot more of the evening talking, we even went hunting together. Carlisle still wasn't home and I was starting to get a little worried, if he took the day shift he should be home by now.

Finally Emma, Helen, and Sarah had to leave, but they promised they would come and see me again whilst they were in the states. I was glad, they were really nice. We exchanged phone numbers and they ran downstairs with me, politely saying goodbye to everyone, and again promising to come back soon.

I watched them drive away, and walked back inside to find Edward explaining the girls' powers to the rest of my family. They all looked nervous for some reason. My mom looked as if she was about to cry – if that was still possible for her.

My dad suddenly stiffened and almost seconds later I could smell werewolf and heard 3 loud knocks on the door.

"It's Seth!" I sang. I could smell it, and I hadn't seen Seth in ages – I'd really missed him. I wondered what he was doing here...

I ran to the door and wrenched it open with a smile on my face. Seth's' expression sent a shock through my body, and my smile faltered. He looked completely frantic, and about to cry like my mom.

"What is it?" I asked him fearfully.

"She doesn't need to know," my dad hissed at him, suddenly at my side.

"Dad? Mom? What is it? Tell me? Please." I asked, my voice breaking on the last word. I was really scared now, what was going on? The only reason dad would want me to know would be if he thought it would upset me.

"You know already?" Seth asked, confused.

"Of course, Carlisle has been treating him all day." My dad replied. A little friendlier than before.

"Oh yeah... how come you haven't told Nessie, I mean, he is in really bad shape. His life is in real danger?" he asked.

"Treating who? Told me what?" I asked. My voice getting higher pitched with each word.

My mom turned to me, a grave look on her face.

"Nessie, honey. It's Jacob."

I felt my whole body turn limp as I fainted, and fell into my mom's arms. The last thing I remember seeing was my parent's shocked expressions.


	3. Truth

**Truth**

I woke up the next morning, confused and disorientated. The diffuse light, muted from the clouds, coming through my pale curtains. I couldn't tell what time it was. How did I get to my bedroom? I didn't even remember lying down in my bed.

My room was in the main Cullen house, it used to be my dad's room, but he and my mom lived in the cottage now, deep in the woods, and it was too small for all three of us now. Besides, now I was old enough to know what they got up to... I decided that I'd rather not be anywhere near that.

My king-sized bed had a dull gold coverlet, which was a little darker than the walls. The frame of the bed was black, made of intricately patterned wrought iron. Sculpted metal roses wound in vines up the tall posts, and formed a bowery lattice overhead.

It's the same bed my dad used as a prop before he met my mom, and the one my mom slept in on the few nights she had stayed over. One of the roses was missing. My dad told me he had been showing Bella how strong he was.

I had a load of the music in my room, from when it was my dad's. I loved it, and I had a huge glass wall, that faced south, overlooking the forest. It was so beautiful.

Then I remembered.

What had happened to Jacob? I jumped out of bed with a gasp.

"Dad?" I sobbed, "Mom? Where are you?" They were at my side in an instant. "Where's Jacob? Is he okay? What's wrong with him?" My tears flowed endlessly as Seth's earlier words echoed inside my head: _'his life is in real danger'_.

"Shhhh love, calm down," he soothed. It didn't work, and my breathing was coming in gasps now. Jacob was dying?

"But... Seth... said... he's... dying," I choked out.

Jacob was my best friend. There was no way he could die. I knew it was killing my parents watching me so upset like this, but I couldn't stop crying. It just hurt to think about Jacob dying, and now it might actually be happening. My mom looked pretty upset too.

I just sobbed into my mom's stone embrace and cried myself out. It didn't take long, even though I still wanted to cry.

When I was finally in control of myself again I asked, "What happened to him?"

"Well love," my dad started to say, he looked uncomfortable. "You know how most other vampires aren't like us? The English family you met, the Denali coven, friends of ours up North and some others are vegetarian..."

"Yes dad I know, just get to your point," I spat, anger and frustration momentarily overruling my misery.

"Well there is something out there, it's like a normal vampire... but stronger, and faster, and much more dangerous."

"What like super vampires?" I shuddered at the thought.

"I guess so."

"And one of these attacked Jacob?" I enquired fearfully, hoping the answer would be no. But I wasn't that fortunate.

"Yes," he replied solemnly. I took a deep breath to steady myself.

"When?" I asked quietly.

"Yesterday morning, around 7am-"

"You mean he wasn't out of town... you lied?" I asked incredulously.

"I'm sorry," he said remorsefully.

"You lied to me!" I shouted furiously, "You kept this from me and lied!"

"I am so sorry," my dad murmured, stroking my hair, "I thought it would be best for you, but I was wrong. I really am sorry."

"Just don't keep things like that from me, I have a right to know too," I told him firmly. "Carry on then," I allowed him.

"Thank you," he looked relieved that I'd forgiven him. "Jacob was in his human form, and this creature attacked him from behind, before Jacob got his bearings. Most of Jacob's bones were crushed before he could phase. This thing went crazy once Jacob phased. Jake was lucky that the pack came and scared this thing off before he lost one of his limbs." I gasped quietly. "None of the pack got a clear look at this thing, and its trail disappeared into the sea before the wolves caught up with it."

"And Jacob?" I asked even quieter than before.

"He's... not doing great" my dad told me softly.

My tears started flowing again, "but he's a werewolf for crying out loud! He heals so fast, why is he dying?"

"He was bitten love, but Carlisle is treating him right now, he's going to be fine." She told me, stroking my face.

"How can you even say that?" I exclaimed, jumping up to my feet. "I have to see him. Now!" I told my parents fiercely.

**Edward:**

I knew this was coming. I knew she would want to see Jacob.

Seth was helpful in a fight, he really was. I remembered how useful he'd been during the attack of the newborns. Over the years he had become a great friend to me. A brother in arms of sorts. But why, for all that is holy, did he have to come and tell Nessie about Jacob!

Ness was one to work herself up over things. I suppose I didn't really know why she cared so much for Jacob. Then again, I wasn't best friends with that dog.

I wondered how she would feel if she really knew why he spent so much time with her. I didn't plan on ever telling her that he'd imprinted on her, moments after she was born. Ness was technically only 6, even though she appeared to be 16, still my little girl. It made me think about the common human phrase 'they grow up so fast'. I chuckled to myself.

"Dad! How can you be laughing! I have to go and see him!" Nessie moaned. I'd forgotten she'd been waiting for an answer.

"Sorry Ness. You can't. His condition is too unstable, and Carlisle said he isn't to have any visitors." '_WHAT?' _she internally shrieked, _'I can't even see him now?'_

"Fine! I'm going hunting then!" She shouted as she stormed outside. _'Maybe I could sneak off to see him...' _she was thinking to herself.

"Don't even think about it Ness." I shouted across the lawn, to where she was disappearing into the trees, like a deadly tiger, stalking into the undergrowth of the savannah grasses, her stripes blending in perfectly.

If only she knew how un-lethal she really was. A tiger cub, posing as a tiger. It was almost funny to watch.

I sighed to myself. "Alice, would you just accompany Ness hunting? She's a little upset, and I don't think she'd appreciate neither Bella nor me going." I called upstairs.

The morning light, was just breaking over the tall tree-tops, sending the seldom rays of light breaking through the clouds, flooding across the lawn

"No problem Edward," Alice called back, and she jumped lightly down from the second story window, and raced into the woods to catch up with Nessie.

**Renesmee:**

I heard fast light feet, coming up behind me. Great, count on dad to send a babysitter.

"Hey Alice," I greeted her sadly.

"Hey Ness, how you holding up?" She asked, her voice full of compassion and concern.

"I just don't understand why I can't see him! It's completely unfair!" I cried.

"He's in a bad way Ness. Carlisle is only keeping people away because he wants him to get better." She told me softly.

"Whatever, I don't want to talk about it. Let's just hunt" I muttered, as we caught the scent of some elk to the north.

When I got home late that afternoon, I was in a better mood. I'd had a chance reflect on my thoughts. I was still angry, but I understood the reason I was being kept away from Jacob. Even though I understood, I still _needed _to see him, with my own two eyes. I had to see that he was on the mend.

"Hi dad, hi mom. Sorry I kinda took off on you like that," I apologised, as I hugged them both when I got inside.

"Don't worry love," my dad reassured me. "I understand that he is your best friend, and that you need to make sure he's okay. You've known him all your life."

It was so much easier to be mad at my dad when he as being completely unreasonable, but when he was all calm and understanding it was pretty much impossible. My dad smiled at my thoughts.

"Get out of my head!" I laughed. He just rolled his eyes.

"Edward we have to go," my mom told him.

"Where are you going?" I asked, as calmly as I could.

"Me and your mom are going out grocery shopping." my dad explained. Ugh. Could you spell boring? Completely. "I take it you aren't coming then?" my dad smiled, invading my head again.

I'd had such a long day, and I was too tired to even speak the words _not in this lifetime _. My dad grinned and led my mom out to the garage.

"Bye love," she called to me.

I had to wait about 5 minutes, so I picked up the same magazine I'd been reading the other day, to fill my head with trivia. The minutes ticked by sluggishly. Reading about 'the latest celebrity gossip and news' wasn't exactly appealing to me in the slightest right now, I just tried to focus.

Eventually I figured I was in the clear, and my dad couldn't hear my thoughts anymore.

"Grandma Esme?" I lightly called up the stairs.

"Yes Nessie?"

"I haven't seen Grandpa Charlie in a while, I was thinking about popping over, if that's okay with you? I was just gonna run there." I announced, trying to keep my voice as steady as possible.

One of the bad things I'd inherited from my mom, was my inability to lie. Would grandma Esme see through me lie?

I was lucky.

"No problem sweetie, have fun."

"Okay, love you." I called as I made my way into the forest.

I wasn't going to see Grandpa Charlie, I was going to find Jacob.


	4. Midsummer Night's Dream

**Midsummer Night's Dream**

It didn't take me long to guess where Jacob would be being treated. There was no way Carlisle could hide a werewolf inside a hospital, so he would probably be being treated at his house.

I ran as fast as I could, thanking my lucky stars that Alice couldn't see me in her visions. She guessed that she could only see things that she'd experienced. Like she'd once said, she couldn't see half-breeds or wolves because she'd never been one before. That's why she could see humans and vampires, that's what she thought.

I sped towards the Black's house. It was a small wooden place with narrow windows, the dull red paint making it resemble a tiny barn. It fitted in so well with the looming green forest surrounding it.

Jacob lived with his dad, Billy. He looked a lot like an old withered version of Jacob, except Billy was in a wheelchair. I didn't know why though, it was just something I'd never really thought was important to know.

I knew I'd been told I couldn't come see him, but if mom could disobey dad and sneak off and see him, I could. She'd told me how after my dad left, and came back, she had to sneak off just to see him. Besides, I wanted to see him, to know how he was. It was killing me not to know.

I reached the boundary line, even though it wasn't in use anymore, and smelt the wolf in the breeze. I could also smell Carlisle, and could see his car in the driveway of the Black's house, nestled in the green forest. Uh-oh...

"Hello Nessie"

Drat. I'd forgotten about grandpa Carlisle. "Hey grandpa," I mumbled sheepishly, "I know I'm not meant to be here, but I really need to check on Jake. I don't even have to talk to him, just look in the window or something, I don't mind. I really am sorry, and-"I was cut off in my pathetic ranting.

"Nessie, don't worry. I understand. Jacob is doing better now anyway. When he was attacked, it was much like a newborn attack, but worse." I shuddered at the thought. My mom had told me about her murky memories of the newborns, from when she was human – long before I was born.

"It took me a while to get Jacob in a stable condition. Almost every single one of his bones was broken, or shattered," I winced, "and he was torn up pretty badly. Your dad just didn't want you to see him all banged up, he really cares about you Ness."

"My mom said he was bitten," I mumbled, "isn't that a death sentence for wolves?" I was a little confused.

"Well it is from normal vampires," Carlisle explained, "but these super-vampires are strange. Their venom is poisonous, as if it is there not to kill but to torture. I got Jacob a blood transfusion, and he is starting to recover, considering he is a werewolf." Carlisle smiled his movie star smile. It was as if a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders, just from hearing those words. Everything was going to be okay."But he still might not make it, if the venom still in his veins takes control, I'm afraid." Carlisle backtracked; obviously worried he'd given me false hope. The weight came back with such a sudden, crushing force that my shoulders hunched over with grief.

"Can I see him?" I asked timidly, I couldn't even lift my eyes from the floor. I was so nervous about seeing him all of a sudden.

"He's in a lot of pain, some venom is still in his bloodstream, and his immune system is struggling to keep up and the venom is stopping his broken bones and cuts from healing. Come with me and we'll see how he's doing."

I walked slowly behind Carlisle, through the small house. The air was full of desperation and hopelessness, which seemed to infect you. It was hard to hope for good things in the house right now.

"Hey Ness." said a grave voice behind me. I turned round.

"Hey Billy," I replied in the same monotone voice. Neither of us felt like talking, so the conversation ended there.

"Wait here Nessie," Carlisle told me softly, I'll just go and see if he's awake." I just nodded feebly as he walked into Jacobs's room. I waited outside the door impatiently.

"You can come in Ness, he's asleep." I heard him quietly call. I took a deep breath, and peeked round the door.

Jacob's room had been turned into a hospital area. He was hooked up to a drip, and a machine was steadily beeping beside him.

His usual 6 foot bed, for his 7 foot body, had been taken away and replaced with a hospital bed, which had been adjusted for his unusual height.

His chest of drawers and desk had been pushed to the side of the room, his bed in the middle. The window had been covered up with some heavy fabric, which allowed little light to escape through. It had started to lightly rain outside, and I could hear the rhythmic pitter-patter on the rooftop outside.

His unconscious figure was sprawled across the hospital bed, his face grimacing with pain, even in sleep. His face was covered in bruises and open cuts, and a bloodstained bandage was wrapped round his head.

His dark hair was lank and he looked much paler than usual. His left arm was completely covered in a cast, and his right arm was in a loose sling across his chest. Jacob whimpered uneasily in his sleep.

His legs were both casted, and deep purple bruises were clearly visible over his chest and left arm.

"Oh Jake..." I breathed, my eyes welling up. I put my hand lightly over his, then gasped and pulled it away in shock.

Jacob was _cold. _We were normally about the same temperature, but he was almost as cold as my parents...as...a vampire.

"Why... why is he so cold?" I asked Carlisle quietly. Jacob was never cold, just one of his advantages with being a werewolf. He once told me that he could stand shirtless in a snow storm, and be unaffected. It was amazing. Now standing in this stuffy room, his skin felt ice cold.

"The venom... I've never even heard of anything like this, I don't know what to do." He explained gently. "I'll leave you with him, just call if you need anything."

Carlisle walked silently out of the room. He was giving me some time with Jacob, conscious or not. I was grateful.

Jacob's eyes fluttered open, and as they focused, he saw me standing over him.

"Ness," he smiled through the grimace, "I was wondering when you'd come and see me." His voice was strained, but he was trying to make the atmosphere as light as possible. I felt like crying, just thinking about the effort he was making to put on a brave face. He must be hurting so much.

**Jacob:**

I remembered the last moments before I was attacked. That day was shrouded with so much pain; I didn't even remember why I went into the forest.

I suddenly smelt something... different. It wasn't vampire, but it had the same sickly sweet scent. Before I could even turn I felt something ram into my back, knocking me down. I cried out in pain.

I guessed the amount of force this vamp was using was about the equivalent of a high speed train hitting you. I remember pain. A lot of pain.

There was only one of these creatures, but it still did a lot of damage. It broke my bones. More pain. Sharp teeth. Ripping. Even more pain.

As a werewolf I didn't really feel pain anymore. I was strong enough. I remembered when Bella punched me. I didn't even feel a thing, yet she broke her hand. I wasn't used to this pain. I was confused as to why I was in so much pain. I was in shock.

I barely had the strength to phase.

'_Help, please someone help me.' _I internally moaned as this creature continued to attack.

'_JAKE? JACOB?' _many shocked voices called back. I could feel them running... then nothing.

I was told I'd been found unconscious; the creature had fled as it heard the packs coming. I woke up late in the evening... around midnight maybe. Carlisle had been treating me all day. He saved my life.

I had a new kind of gratitude to him. He was a truly good person. I hated my former self, wondering why I had ever wanted to kill him. He was a vampire, yes, but a good, compassionate, and kind vampire.

And now, Nessie was here.

I felt her pull away with a quiet gasp as she placed her hand on mine. Her skin now felt red hot against mine. I knew the venom was still in my bloodstream, and this is why I still felt pain, and it had made my skin so cold. I guess the cold skin may have made me seem more vampirish.

Opening my eyes, and seeing Nessie standing there beside me... I was so happy to see her, I loved her so much.

"Ness," I was so happy to see her, I was hurting so much "I was wondering when you'd come and see me." It was so hard to just try and sound normal. Her eyes welled up and I wanted to be able to do something to stop her from crying... there was nothing I could do though.

"Hey Jacob," she smiled, "How are you?" She looked as if she was about to cry, she was trying to put on a brave face for me. I didn't want her to be upset; I only wanted her to be happy.

"I'm doing okay," I replied, trying to be as upbeat as possible.

"Good," she replied, her voice quivering.

"Ness, there's something I need to talk to you about..." I began. I owed it to Ness to tell her, I'd know her all my life, and loved her all my life. I'd always wanted her to be happy.

"Go right ahead" she comforted, "I'm listening."

I took a deep breath, and winced as it hurt my bruised ribs. "Your mom and I were best friends, for a really long time, when your dad up and left her. I helped her be happy."

"Yeah my mom told me about that," she smiled, "she called you her own personal sun. You made her happy."

"Yeah and from the minute you were born, I've wanted to do the same for you." Okay... here I go. "When you were a baby... I imprinted on you," her jaw fell open, "and now you're pretty much a woman. I'm in love with you Ness. I always have been."

**Renesmee:**

What? What? That's all that was going through my mind.

Jacob? In love with me? My mouth opened and closed like a goldfish, while I grappled with my mind, finding the right words to tell him.

"Wow... Jake... give me a minute okay?" I told him. I was in shock. What should I say? I was really confused. I didn't know how I felt yet.

"Jake... Jacob... why did you wait so long to tell me?" I asked him.

"I don't know... I wanted to wait until I felt you were ready for me to tell you."

"How could you think that I'd ever be ready for you to tell me something like this?" I told him sincerely.

"I don't know Ness..."

"Sorry Jake, I'm leaving..." I said, shaking my head.

"Wait!" He said, catching my hand with his casted arm. "Please don't go."

He sounded so sincere and upset. "Jacob, you can't just drop a bombshell like that on me."

"I'm so sorry Nessie. But please, just tell me how you feel about me..." he questioned, looking deep into my eyes.

Aww man. I loved Jake, I really did. I just didn't know if I was _in _love with him. I took a deep breath.

"Jake, I do love you, but-"he didn't wait any longer. He pulled my face down to his with such fervour; I wouldn't have been surprised if he was hurting himself. When our lips connected he seemed to explode with emotion.

His fingers weaved through my hair, holding my face to his. He groaned, with pleasure or pain, I didn't know.

My head was full of so many emotions. I was so confused, I didn't know how I felt. It was too much. As gently as I could I pushed his face from mine.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I have to go." I had to get out of there, clear my head. I just wordlessly ran past Carlisle, tears already spilling down my cheeks. What was I going to do now?

And what was waiting for me at home, would be almost as bad as my indecision. There was no way to hide what had happened here from my dad, and I was worried enough about what he would say since I snuck off.

**Jacob:**

I watched her leave, run gracefully from the room, tears in her eyes.

Great. I had to open my big mouth, and now I'd blown it.


	5. News

**News**

**Renesmee:**

I ran back to the house as fast as I could, blinded by my own tears as I ran. I flew through the sea of green, just running to get away. The only place I could go was the house.

I was so confused, I didn't know what to think. Even more than how I felt, I was worried about what my dad would say and do. He would be furious, no doubt. I was almost close enough now, so I had to try not to think of... what happened.

He did have a tendency to be a tad overprotective, and there was no way I could hide what had happened at Jacob's from him.

I guess grandpa Carlisle had rang my dad, and told him I went to see Jacob. My dad's Volvo was in the drive. He was home. My dad was so lucky he could drive, it was only a while till I could, but still. _Stupid shiny Volvo owner _I thought in frustration.

Walking into the house, I tried to remember every detail of Jacob's room, where he was hurt, and the expression on his face.

When I lifted my head, to meet my parent's eyes, instead of anger, I saw sympathy. I must have been doing a better job of hiding my thoughts than usual.

"Sorry dad. I shouldn't have snuck off." I mumbled through my tears.

"Shhhh, don't worry. I'm not angry with you it's ok." He soothed, stroking my cheek. "I'm sorry you had to see him like that." He pulled me into a hug and I put my arms round him. Just nestling against his side. My mom put her hand on my shoulder and we stood together.

I thought about all the reasons it wasn't 'okay'. I'd snuck off, I'd lied to my grandma which I felt really bad about, I worried my parents, Jake had kissed me... oops.

My dad stiffened and a hiss escaped through his lips. I pulled away quickly and stood a few feet away from him. Looking at my feet. "What?" he spat.

"Dad just leave it okay! I need some time to think." I garbled, "Just stop it!"

"What happened?" my mom asked uneasily. She came and stood beside me, and wrapped her arms round my shoulders. "Tell me love," she prompted softly.

"He kissed her..." my dad growled, glaring out the door. Probably in the direction of Jacob's house. To be honest, I was a little scared of my dad right now. I'd never seen him so angry.

My mom just stood there, her arms still round me. Speechless.

"Dad I said butt out!" I cringed into my mom's stone hold, leaning away from him. New tears sprung to my eyes, and I wiped them away furiously. "Mom..." I mumbled. I didn't know what I wanted her to do. Just stop him I guess.

**Bella:**

I was a little shocked. Okay, I was very shocked. Why had Jacob kissed her? I didn't know what to say. Should I be angry, understanding? I tackled with many different emotions. I was frozen. I probably looked a lot like Edward did, when he found out I was pregnant with Ness. As still as a statue.

"Ness..." I whispered in shock, "Tell me exactly what happened."

Edward answered before she did, spitting each syllable out in disgust. "He told her he imprinted, and before she could tell him how she felt that moronic _dog _kissed her."

All right. I'd been expecting this, right? She was maturing into a beautiful young woman, she would stop growing soon, and he would obviously tell her sometime.

I just wish he hadn't pushed this on her like that. She was upset enough about the fact that he was badly injured, on a death bed basically, and no she had to think about this too. I felt so bad for her, she had a lot on her plate.

If she likes Jacob back, I had no problem with him kissing her. I tried to think calmly, and get my facts straight. It would help Ness if I was behaving like Edward. Completely unreasonable and difficult.

"Did you want him to kiss you?" I asked quietly.

"That doesn't-"

"Edward, please! Just let Nessie talk!" I said firmly to Edward, as he tried to blow this out of proportion again.

Nessie took a deep, trembling breath. She turned to face me, but kept her tear-filled eyes on the floor.

"I snuck off to see him, and I'm sorry for that I really am." She told me sincerely, meeting my eyes. She looked down again as soon as she continued talking. "Jake told me he imprinted. I didn't know what to say, and when I finally did, he misunderstood and kissed me. It wasn't his fault." She blushed as she spoke. I stroked her hair.

"Okay... why don't you... go see Alice. She's in her room."

"Sure mom," she murmured, looking a little confused. She fled out the room, not even looking at Edward as she blew past.

Edward moved and sat down on the cream sofa, anger, annoyance, and rage, all rolled into one on his beautiful face. He glared out the window.

"Bella!" What are we going to do?" he bellowed.

"First Edward, we are going to calm down." I looked at him furiously and narrowed my eyes. I waited until the fire in his eyes died down a little, and he seemed to relax into the sofa a fraction.

"I'm sorry," he sighed, coming to stand beside me, cupping my face in his hands. The perfect picture of regret.

"Next, I'll tell you what we're going to do. Nothing." I sang back, running my hands through his tousled bronze hair.

He pulled away a little, and looked at me in surprise.

"But-"

"But nothing." I told him. Glaring into his golden eyes. "This is Nessie's choice. If Ness comes to you, and asks you to beat up Jacob, please, be my guest. Until then, you have to let this be her decision."

Edward sighed in annoyance. "Fine," he muttered, "but if that dog ever touches Nessie again, I won't wait for Nessie to ask me. Whatever the circumstances." He moved away from me and sat down on the sofa again.

"Even if it's her decision?" I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Yes!" He snapped in exasperation. I moved and sat next to him, I stroked his perfect face gently.

"I love you" I smiled at him

He put his arm round my waist. As if to hold me there forever. I hoped he would.

"As I love you," he crookedly grinned back. I rested my head on his shoulder, and he stroked the back of my hand with his fingertips. We sat together for a few moments, enjoying being together.

"So what do you want to do now?" I murmured.

"Well I was thinking we could go to the cottage, and relive our honeymoon..." he breathed in my ear suggestively.

"I meant about Nessie and Jacob," I laughed rolling my eyes.

Edward chuckled once then frowned, deep in thought. "Well I suppose is she does want this, it would be fair on her if I killed him, not to mention the fact that Ness wouldn't be too pleased with me" he speculated.

"You know how much she loves him, like a brother at least. We need to let her think about how she really feels without you interfering." I prodded his chest with my finger on the last word.

"We do need to talk to him though. He has to understand that if he's dealing with our daughter, he has to at least tell us before he does anything. Why did he even decide to tell her in the first place? She's much too young!" I let Edward rant on. I knew that really, as angry as he seemed to be, he loved Ness, and didn't want her to get hurt. He thought all the wolves were dangerous, just look at Sam's wife Emily. Her face mangled when Sam phased too close.

We just sat there for a while together. Stroking each other's faces, wrapped in each other's arms. I felt blissfully happy.

I could hear faint music coming from Nessie's room, muted by the carpets and floors. She was gently singing along in her high soprano voice.

Darkness was starting to approach. It was a very clear night, and the bright moon was shining over the lawn. We must have been sitting here for a while. I wondered where the other Cullens were... They must have silently gone to their rooms. Now I really focused on my surroundings, I could hear Esme writing in her study, the quiet scratching of her pen on paper. Carlisle was still at Jacob's. Alice and Jasper were planning to go hunting later tonight. Rosalie and Emmett were... I decided not to listen too closely to what they were up to lately.

"Night mom, night dad, love you." Nessie appearing in the doorway, dressed in her pyjamas, broke through my daydreaming.

"Goodnight, love you" Edward and I both called softly as she disappeared up the stairs. I heard the faint click of a switch as she turned her light off, and the rustle of the bed sheets. A few moments later I could hear her heavy breathing, as she slept.

I smiled and nestled closer into Edward's perfect chest, I never wanted to leave. We could have been sitting there for minutes or hours, I couldn't tell. I'd all but forgotten the rest of the world.

"Oh my god." Edward jumped up, his face whiter than usual. His eyes were wide open in terror and shock.

He scooped me up from the sofa and ran me at a blinding speed – well blinding to a human – to the doorway of Renesmee's room. We stood there silently for 1 second, I looked up at his panic-stricken expression. My head whipped round to look at Nessie, but she was sleeping peacefully, no danger in sight.

"What's wrong?" I whispered fearfully. He was completely motionless, only his golden eyes wheeling round the darkness, looking for something out the dark window.

Before I could repeat my question, I heard 3 quiet taps on the door. Edward took us back downstairs to the front door as quickly as we had come up. He put me down on the floor.

"This creature that got Jacob, got Becky and Colin," He whispered in a solemn voice.

Becky and Colin were 2 wolves from Sam's pack. During our fight with the Volturi, when they tried to take Nessie from us 6 years ago, 6 new people had joined the pack because of all the vampires in the area.

These were good wolves. Becky, George, Charlie, Louise, Robert and William were the names of these new wolves, and they all came from the Quileute area. Colin was a slightly older wolf.

"Are they okay?" I choked out.

"They're dead." He replied, emotionless again.

"No..." I trailed off. I couldn't believe it.

Colin had imprinted on Becky soon after she'd joined the pack. No-one had ever seen her before, until she turned wolf.

Leah was a little happier, knowing she wasn't some kind of girlie wolf freak, or at least not the only one. She and Becky had become close friends, I didn't really like Becky much though. She was bratty, and thought she was better than everyone else.

Edward opened the front door. It was only a few seconds since they'd knocked.

Standing there was Sam.

**Edward:**

"We know," I told Sam.

I was so scared for my family. These things that were attacking were so much stronger than anything we'd ever encountered before. What if it got one of them?

"Alice! Jazz! Rose! Emm! Esme!" I called hurriedly. They were all standing beside me in an instant, concern in their faces and minds. Bella just stood beside me wordlessly, her hand in mine.

"What is it Edward?" Esme asked me anxiously.

"Call Carlisle, get him to meet us 7 miles west of Jacob's house. This creature has attacked again." I scanned the room as I answered her, trying to see though the glass windows, that did nothing but reflect our frenzied and shocked expressions back at us. Esme nodded and walked out the room. I heard her frantic whispers on the phone.

"What are we going to do?" Bella whispered at my side, crying tearless tears.

"We're going to get the scent of these things."

"There's more than one?" She exclaimed, her eyes wide open in fear. She looked so vulnerable, and it reminded me little of when she was human. As a vampire now she was rarely scared. Esme walked back into the room.

"Yes... we think there are 3. One attacked Jacob, and there are 2 different ones that... killed Becky and Colin." I struggled to even explain. These things didn't show any signs of stopping, and I was having trouble keeping a straight face for Bella's sake. "Esme, Alice, Rose, can you stay here and protect Nessie? Bella, Emmett, Jasper and I are going to go and try to track these things down." As much as I wanted to keep Bella safe, I couldn't bear to have her leave me.

They all just nodded. "Be careful." Esme whispered distraughtly. I nodded and took Bella's hand in mine. Esme cared so much for me. She really was my mother in more ways than one.

'_I'll go phase' _Sam thought, as he walked away from us into the bushes. I heard the quiet shimmer, and the midnight black wolf padded over towards us.

"Let's go," I ordered Sam.

'_Does she really need to come with us?' _Sam thought warily, nodding towards Bella. I just ignored him, and pulled Bella with me into a run. I could hear Jasper and Emmett and Sam running behind us. After a few moments Carlisle shot out the trees and ran alongside us.

"What's happened son?" Carlisle called over to me.

"2 of the same type of creature that attacked Jacob, got Becky and Colin. They're both dead."

Carlisle nodded in understanding and sympathy. I didn't know either of the wolves that well but still the fact that they'd been killed was just horrifying.

We ran ahead in silence, not talking at all. Everyone's thoughts were nervous about what we would find.

After a minute or so more of running, we finally reached the place. Five different wolves were pacing the area. Their thinking was so disjointed and frantic I could only make out parts of it.

'_Oh my god, it's going for the wolves and I'm going to be next-'_

'_What are we going to do now? What are we going to say to their parents-'_

'_How can we stop this thing, it's so strong. They didn't even have time to phase! We-'_

I couldn't listen anymore, I just let it return to a mindless babble in the back of my mind. We all slowed our pace to a walk, and I took Bella's hand again, holding her close. I could smell this creature's scent now. It wasn't exactly vampire... it has a wolfy undertone to it, but it wasn't really like the wolves it was killing either. It was very strange.

We slowly approached the place where they'd been killed, the smell of blood strong in the air.

I'd seen this in Sam's thoughts, so I was prepared. But no-one else was.

As the bodies finally came into view, Jasper and Emmett gasped and took a step back. Carlisle winced away from the scene in front of us. Bella's eyes wheeled franticly round the massacre. She let out a high pitched, blood-curdling scream. She turned to me and buried her head in my chest, her whole body shaking.


	6. Vulnerable

**Vulnerable**

**Bella:**

The scene in front of me was so full of horror. It was so unexpected. It was terrifying. I had never been so scared in my vampire life, I couldn't help by scream. I needed Edward to put his arms round me, and tell me we were safe. Even though what was in front of me proved we weren't.

"I'm so much sorrier that you can even imagine my Bella. I love you so much, I'm going to protect us all. You don't have to be scared." Edward vowed to me. When he started speaking it reminded me of when I first met him human, full of so much self-hate and loathing. But during his promise his voice took on a new tone, and became fierce with determination.

He lifted my chin up and waited for me to meet his burning eyes. Staring into that liquid gold, everything seemed to be clearer, I wasn't so scared. I was filled with purpose, to protect Nessie and Edward, and as much of my extended family as I could.

I nodded with this new resolution. Edward put his finger under my chin and pulled my face gently toward his.

"I love you Bella, I can't live without you, and I'd never let anything hurt you." Edward closed the gap between our lips on the last word, and kissed me, crushing my lips with his. Whenever we kissed, it felt like he had injected some kind of adrenaline into my system. This time I didn't let the kiss overwhelm me. There was too much awfulness in the forest behind me.

"I love you too Edward," I mumbled into his chest. I hated feeling so vulnerable, but to be honest, I was terrified.

He took my hand in his and with the other waved Jasper, Emmett, Carlisle and Sam forward. I gripped it with fear as we ghosted into the carnage.

The smell of werewolf was stronger and stronger with each step. I gripped Edward's hand harder, I didn't want to look down at the bodies of the werewolves I had been talking with just a few days earlier.

I braced myself, then looked down.

"Oh my goodness..." I choked out.

Becky and Colin's lifeless bodies were strewn over the forest. Blood was spattered everywhere, their bodies were dismembered.

Each of the bodies has deeply lacerated skin, it was so bad you could hardly tell who was who. I knew though. I cringed into Edward.

Colin's body was missing its head. My eyes scanned round the forest quickly, and found it in Becky's arms. Her body was also headless.

I looked again, but found no head. I searched and searched, but I couldn't see even a single strand of her long blonde hair. These things had... taken it? I shuddered at the thought of a _trophy. _These creatures were mocking us.

Both Colin's left arm and his right leg weren't attached to his body. His leg was ripped to shreds, but still recognisable, in a nearby bush. His arm was thrown a few yards away out in the forest.

The bodies of these people, were slashed, and drained dry. I felt like I would throw up, if I could.

"It's disgusting... horrible... so wrong..." Emmett was muttering to himself in disgust, as he paced round the area.

Jasper just stood there, a look of pure shock on his face. He was looking nervously through the trees, every so often murmuring something unintelligible to himself.

Sam whined quietly to himself, his head low down with grief.

I looked up to Edward, who was looking at me concernedly. I knew he was wracked with guilt for bringing me along. He obviously didn't want to leave me while these things were out there. Even if he had wanted to protect my eyes, and trusted Alice, Esme and Rose, I would have insisted on coming with him. There was no way I was going to leave him while these things were out there.

"I wouldn't have let you go without me Edward," I told him comfortingly, "I need to be with you as much as you need to be with me. I can't leave you."

His face relaxed a little as he understood that our feelings were shared, and he nodded once quickly. I missed his smile so much.

"We need to pick up the scents, and follow them. Maybe we can find at least one of these things." Edward rumbled in a perfect copy of Sam's deep voice.

"Okay... let's go." I whispered.

**Jacob:**

A shrill, almost impatient tone had woken me from my slumber. I blearily opened my eyes, and saw Carlisle holding a small silver cell phone.

"Sorry, excuse me Jacob," Carlisle told me softly, touching my arm briefly as he flew out of the room. The ringing stopped.

I shivered at his cold touch, and looked down at the top of my casted arm, where I could see goose bumps already appearing. Wait! All of a sudden, I realized that I wasn't freezing cold anymore. I felt toasty warm. When Carlisle had been treating me this morning, I'd barely noticed his freezing hands, now, they were like ice blocks against my burning skin.

I flexed my arms and legs, and I recognized the feeling of strength and indestructibility. My leg didn't feel broken anymore, neither did my arm. All but one or two of the bruises has disappeared, and the huge gashes covering me, seemed to be a distant memory.

I twist my arms and legs once more to check. Yup. Definitely not broken. I felt perfectly fine, I realized with joy. My head was clearer, I could finally think straight.

Looking around my room, I can see it's dark. It must be almost midnight, maybe later. It's only source of light, is a small desk lamp in the corner of the room. Some faint rays of moonlight are sneaking through the heavy curtain, it must have been moved.

Reaching up and pulling it back, the bright light of the moon spills across my bedroom. The moon is high in the sky. I dimly remember a new moon a week, maybe less, ago. It was just coming into a perfect crescent. Like a luminescent slice of watermelon. I chuckle softly at my bad metaphor.

Carlisle walked in silently, and started to remove the casts from my arms and legs. He didn't say a word, and looked very shocked, he didn't hide it well. He kept on opening and closing his mouth as if to say something, but thought better of it and carried on removing the casts. Eventually they were off and I was free.

"Jacob... I've got some bad news..." Carlisle finally spoke delicately, as he walked into my room. He looked... paler than usual, and worried about something. I winced as his sickly sweet smell reached my all too sensitive nose.

"What is it doc?" I asked him apprehensively. I had no idea what was going on.

"Colin and Becky... the creature that attacked you... it's killed them."

"What?" I half snarled, half shouted. Becky and Colin were... dead?

"I'm so sorry Jacob." Carlisle stepped forward, as if he would comfort me, but thought better of it and put his arms down. I was so full of rage I could hardly care. My whole body was trembling. Carlisle took an apprehensive step back.

"Jacob you should calm down," he cautioned, "You've only just started healing, you don't want to cause anymore damage."

I tried to reign myself in. I took a few deep breaths, and stopped the trembling.

"Yeah, you're right, sorry doc," I sighed. "Is that what the call was about?"

"Yes. I need to go a get the creature's scents. There is more than one."

"Okay, I'll come-"

"I'm afraid you can't Jacob, your bones only just healed and are very weak. If you phased now they could all break again." Carlisle silenced me with a look a father might give a misbehaving son.

These creatures killed members of Sam's pack... and I wasn't allowed to go hunt it down? This was crazy! I'm an Alpha for crying out loud. I shouldn't be sitting here like an invalid whilst Seth, who's practically still a baby, can run around looking for this thing! I should be out helping.

"I'm sorry Jacob. You could become very vulnerable if you got hurt out there. We don't want anything to happen to you." Carlisle told me quietly, he put his hand on my arm, and I reflexively recoiled from the icy touch. Carlisle just looked at me very seriously, then with a blink of your eyes he was gone.

No way. No friggin' way! That leech wasn't going to make me stay here! I growled under my breath.

Very slowly I eased myself out of the bed. I was no longer attached to any machines, since I didn't need them. I felt a little dizzy, but I guessed that was just from lying down for too long.

Grabbing a pair of sweats from my chest of drawers, I slowly but surely made my way to the kitchen, tying them to my ankle as I stumbled through the dark house. Passing my dad's room I could hear him lightly snoring as he slept. He slept like the dead, so there was no way he'd wake up if I accidentally made any noise.

I walked out into the cold dark night. It wasn't cold or dark for me though. Being a werewolf did have its advantages. I smirked to myself in the darkness.

Okay... werewolf... right. I let the heat spread through my body, from my very core to the tips of my fingers. In an instant I was a wolf, huge as a horse. Doc was wrong, I felt fine - strong, even. I started to pad my way into the forest.

Obviously Seth and Leah weren't wolf right now, otherwise I'd hear their thoughts. Leah was older than me, technically, and Seth was her brother. He was a little younger than me. I was glad we didn't age as werewolves, I could live forever if I wanted to, and with Nessie I probably would.

Sam probably warned them to stay in public, human, for their own safety. This assumption made me think about _my _own safety. Was _I _safe?

Probably was, I'd smelled this creature before, so I was on red alert. I could smell a faint trace of it coming faintly from the west. I decided to go after it.

I ran along for a while, gingerly, but I felt no pain, so I broke into a full out sprint. My muscles welcomed the familiar strain, and I soon eased into the run.

Ouch. The smell of vampires was so strong all of a sudden, it hit me flat in the face. I winced and wrinkled my nose. I could smell Bella and a few of the other Cullens. What were the vampires doing here?

"_Sam?" _I called out in my mind. "_What are the Cullens doing there?"_

"_Jake! You're okay! I've been so worried. The Cullens are helping us track down these creatures." _I heard him 'think' back. _"Uh oh... I don't think Edward wants you here."_

"_Tough. I'm coming. You hear that Edward?"_

"_Oh yeah... he hears you."_

Stopping where I was, I pulled the heat back, and took a few deep breaths. I felt the air around me changing as I phased back into human form. I pulled on the old sweats tied to my ankle, and strode ahead.

I reached the sparse area of forest where they were, tracking it looked like. Edward was glaring at me. Carlisle looked a little... pissed off to be blunt. I felt a little guilty, but nonetheless, I had to be here.

"I'm sorry Doc. I just needed to come."

"I don't care that you came Jacob." Edward spat at me. "I couldn't care less if you were killed right this very second. If I'd had it my way, it would have been a few hours ago actually."

Uh-oh. I'd kinda forgotten I'd kissed Ness. Looks like Edward was a tad... infuriated with me. That seemed to be the right word.

"Infuriated?" He snarled at me, whilst Bella tried to calm him, "you kissed my daughter without her permission, _mutt. _I am _beyond_ infuriated."

"Edward. Chill okay? We talked about this earlier." Bella soothed him. Edward just turned away from me, his hands gripped into fists against his sides. Probably imagining choking me I guessed. I decided that laughing wouldn't be best for this moment. Edward just hissed through his teeth. "Jasper if you don't mind." Bella motioned with her hand towards Edward.

"Sure Bells," he nodded. Edward's hands unfurled slowly, and he turned to face me. Wasn't so much furious as... slightly annoyed now.

"Jacob, dude, I think it would be best if you followed a different track. One of the scents leads a different way a mile or two back. Either that or you can leave." Emmett boomed in his deep bass tone. He didn't seem angry with me, a little amused maybe. No idea why though. I just nodded.

"Jake?" Bella called seriously as I started to walk away, "Come back to the house in the morning though. We need to talk."

"Sure whatever." I shouted back, already pulling off my sweats as I vanished into the forest.

My day was going so well. Not.

**Edward:**

Morning light was just appearing over the treetops, and we still hadn't found anything.

We followed trail after endless trail, but they all seemed to vanish. Carlisle had been debating what these things could be all night too. We had no idea.

"Okay everyone, I think we're getting nowhere fast here. It would be best to return home, for Nessie's sake. We'll look again tonight, once Ness is asleep." Carlisle called out to us all. He was right. Ness would be up soon, and worried where everyone was. I wondered how we should tell her about Colin and Becky. She didn't know them that well. How would she react?

Everyone murmured their agreements. Emmett, Jasper and Carlisle wanted to be back with their wives, and I knew Bella wanted to be back without Nessie, as did I.

"Dad! Mom!" Nessie cried out, as soon as we reached the doorway of the house. She sounded relieved. "Where have you been?"

"Ness, love, you should be in bed, you must be exhausted. It's only 6am!" Bella hugged her, her voice mingled with concern. I could tell Bella wasn't quite ready to tell Ness what had happened to the other wolves. Ness was too good though, and saw Bella's attempt to change the subject.

"Stop it mom! What has happened? Is Jacob okay?" Her angry voice faded into a quiet, nervous squeak.

"Jacob is fine, he's made a full recovery." I told her comfortingly. _For now at least._ I thought silently. No-one had expected my reaction to seeing Jacob whilst tracking the creatures, not even me! It just brought back the memory of Nessie's memory, bringing back my anger.

"Oh... good... then what is it?" I could hear the joy both in her voice and her head. I smiled uncomfortably. It bothered me that she cared so much. Her internal gushing was a little annoying.

'_Oh thank goodness! They looked so worried and I know my mom is hiding something. I'm so glad Jake is better! I mean, I'm kind of pissed that he kissed me, I should have hit him like my mom did, but he's my best friend! Phew! Oh sorry dad….' _Nessie blushed when I chuckled at her thoughts about punching Jacob.

"So what's wrong?" She asked again.

"Well Ness... the creature that attacked Jacob..." I began, but was interrupting before I could continue.

"Who did it get?" Ness visibly paled, although she was trying to keep a brave face.

"Colin... and Becky." I stuttered out. Would she be terrified?

"Oh..." She looked down, I could see tears starting to fall off the end of her nose, and drip to the floor.

"Ness love, you don't have to be afraid." Bella reassured her, "We'll protect you."

"No... I'm f-fine," she told us, her voice trembling. "I'm going to my room." She quickly fled upstairs, wiping her eyes as she ran. Although I heard no more crying, her thoughts were dazed.

'_Okay... Colin and Becky... I didn't know them that well, but Becky was always nice to me, and they both helped when my family were fighting the Volturi. This means this thing is out there still... and it's killing now. I'm so scared. We need help to stop it... what if there's more than one? Oh no...' _She started crying again.

"What are we going to do Edward?" Bella asked me, putting her hand in mine.

"Ness had an interesting thought... we need some help defeating and tracking down these things... maybe we should call our old friends." I frowned, "Maybe even Nessie's new English friends."

"Okay. But they need to come soon, these things could attack again and- oh no..." Bella stopped midsentence and glanced warily at the door. I could smell it too. Werewolf. Jacob was here.

"Come in." I called, before he had time to knock.


	7. Revelations

**Revelation**

**Jacob:**

I took a deep, focused breath. Would I walk out of this house again? Would Edward kill me? Would Bella be able to stop him- wait, would Bella _want_ to stop him? My mind whirled through a million different possibilities of my chances of getting out of here alive. In the forest earlier Bella had stopped Edward, so maybe she was on my side. If I defended myself from an attack from Edward, would she help him? The answer was so blatantly obvious. _Of course she would. _I shook my head and took one last clean breath of air, before I pushed open the front door.

I didn't want to be here. I didn't want to feel like the naughty schoolboy being scolded by the headmaster. But I did want to be with Nessie. I wanted Edward to see my intentions were pure towards her. I wanted to be with her, forever. I knew that we'd live forever, but I didn't know about the together part. That's why I was here, I reminded myself.

My heavy feet were slow and unwilling on their stone tiled hallway. I trod as lightly as I could, not wanting to make any noise. I heard a light sobbing from a room upstairs, which matched to go with the familiar thrumming heartbeat I knew so well. Hearing this I strode a little more confidently into the large living room.

"Edward." I nodded towards him, keeping my voice as emotionless as possible. I tried to imagine that I was here for a business meeting, instead of deciding the future of the object of my imprinting and I.

"Jacob."

It was not Edward who spoke my name, in the same detached tone as I. I looked toward the large stairway to see Nessie floating down, her steely glare locked on me. My heart jumped loudly against my ribcage, Nessie just scowled. Again with the schoolboy stuff! Normally I could keep my feelings to myself, but with Nessie it was so difficult.

Ness looked very upset, under her impassive mask, her cheeks were tear-stained and the rims were red. She'd been crying, and I wanted to comfort her so much in that second. Then she glared at me again, and I decided it probably would be better not to.

"Alice, would you mind coming here for a moment." Edward called lightly, as Nessie came to stand by Bella. Ness reminded me so much of mom Bella, when she was human. That scowl was so memorable. Alice appeared in a flash, blowing up a gust of breeze with her speed. I winced at the smell.

"Yes, Edward?" she asked in her sing-song voice.

"I think Ness should go hunting, she hasn't been in a while. I also think it would be best if the family went with you. Jacob, Bella and I have some... issues to discuss." Alice looked like she was going to argue, but just pulled a face and took Nessie's hand. They both dashed upstairs, and I could hear low murmuring from all of the Cullen's.

A few seconds later they all appeared just outside the large glass window, as they jumped from an upper floor window. Esme shot an anxious glance in Edward's direction, and Carlisle mirrored it. They ran off after the others, becoming a blur. I was glad Edward had made the whole family go, that way Nessie would be protected.

Now it was just me, Bella and Edward standing awkwardly in this room. The tension seemed to be building, like a ticking bomb, and it made me edgy. What should I do now? An apology, I decided.

"Edward, man, I'm so sorry, I really am... I should have talked to you before I told her, then I misunderstood her. I don't know why I kissed her, I should have done that without her consent, but I love her, and I'm so sorry," I rushed out, my words coming together as one, until to human ears, I would have been talking nonsense.

Edward growled at me. A low rumble that built deep in his chest till it escaped through his curled back lips. It seemed that without Jasper here to calm him down, his rage would be uncontained. He crouched down, ready to spring. I braced myself. I know I should defend myself, but I'm trying to be the good complacent guy, so maybe they'll let me be with Nessie... if Nessie wants to be with me.

"Edward," Bella hissed, moving herself to stand in-between Edward an I. She had been standing calmly until this point, invisible almost compared to the exchange between Edward and me. "Just _talk. _We need to figure out what to do, and it would help if you kept a clear head, and didn't rip Jacob to shreds."

I exhaled in relief. Bella was going to help the situation... I remembered her once saying she was like Switzerland. Maybe she was a bit more biased than Switzerland, but still.

"I think we should sit down." Bella demanded calmly. It seemed like she was going to be the mediator here. I picked the cream sofa furthest from where Bella and Edward sat together, hand in hand. I didn't relax into the sofa, I remained tense, my back straight as a ram rod. Edward's eyes never left mine, they looked a little calmer.

"I'm sorry Jacob," he frowned. This was it. The rule never to see Ness again... "It's not that..." He told me, reading my thoughts. What? I was so thankful, I relaxed a little into the sofa. "I'm sorry for behaving so badly. You know I'm very protective of her. I don't want her to get hurt." He frowned, not looking at me, just thinking.

"But you know how I feel about her, I could _never _hurt her. I love her too much." I almost shouted back fiercely in disbelief. How could he question my devotion to her?

"I'm not questioning your devotion, I'm questioning your nature."

"My nature?" I was a little confused.

"7 years ago you _swore _you loved Bella, you _promised _not to hurt her. There were so many occasions when you broke that promise. Bella cried too many tears over you." Bella cringed a little at this memory. "It is in your nature to hurt the people you love. You're too selfish."

"But you know it's different now! I imprinted on her for god's sake!" I shouted back. Why would he bring this up, 7 years later? It was irrelevant and he knew it.

"There is also the matter of how she feels." He reminded me calmly. Oh. Right. I'd forgotten about that. Suddenly I realized that it didn't matter what Edward said. It all depended on how _she _felt.

"What is she thinking?" I asked. I felt so dejected, my self-esteem had never been so low. This girl was my life. She was all I wanted.

"She's... very confused." Edward deliberated.

"And...?" I prompted.

"Well, there isn't much more really. She's trying to figure out how she feels about you right now. I think you kind of caught her off guard. When you... kissed her." He said the last words, almost in disgust.

"Okay." I frowned. "So what's going to happen now?" I questioned. It was Bella who spoke next.

"Well you need to give her time, Jake. It's up to her now." She stood up and came to sit beside me. "If she doesn't like you back... well then you have to back off." She told me comfortingly. She placed her ice cold hand on my burning arm. I tried not flinch. "I'm sorry Jake."

I nodded. How would I stay away- how _could _I stay away? She was the love of my life, the reason I got up in the morning. I went to sleep thinking about her, I woke up thinking about her. I couldn't live without her. I finally understood how Edward felt, now I was being forced to think about what I would do if she didn't like me. Edward nodded grimly.

"Well... thanks for being so nice to me you guys," I told them as I got up. Edward and Bella were both looking behind me, I turned to see what it was. The rest of the family were coming back in. It seemed our conversation had lasted longer than I thought, or they were faster than I remembered.

They were all laughing and smiling. Nessie turned and saw me watching her. Her face became pained and confused, just a hint of that scowl left. I didn't want her to be in pain.

"I'm going to go-" I began. Wait! What was that? The family had just come in through the door, and weren't laughing anymore. That smell... I recognised it... but I wasn't sure- No! Edward jumped up beside me, the same look of horror on his face. Emmett, Jasper, Bella and Carlisle smelled and recognised it too.

"Get back!" Edward roared at the group of vampires behind me. My whole body was shaking, I couldn't control myself. That scent had come and gone so fast. Traces of it were still left, but that thing had sped past here, so much faster than any vampire I'd ever met.

With one last final shriek, the fire took over, and I phased to my wolf form in a second. The cream white sofa behind me was completely destroyed. Ness, Esme, Rose and Alice were so confused. Their small porcelain figures were behind the males, protected. Nessie was held behind Bella. I only had seconds to take this all in.

'_Help... please...' _This voice begged inside my head. _'Please...stop...someone...help...' _This voice was barely conscious, and tainted with so much pain that I could almost feel it.

"Embry!" Edward screeched, an enraged and both horrified expression on his face. I howled in fury, then broke out into snarls. Embry was being attacked by this thing. Whatever had just blown past us was a trail. They _wanted _us to find them. I was the only wolf, I shouted and shouted to Sam but he didn't respond, no-one else was out there.

I shot out the door, not caring how much of the house I was damaging. Embry Call, my best friend, was dying. I didn't really notice where I was running, the forest just became a blur. I didn't care if I was falling into a trap, I just followed Embry's scent into the deep woods, and tried not to run into any trees.

After a few seconds the pleading from Embry stopped, his mind fading from consciousness. My stride faltered a little, but picked up again at twice the speed. I barely registered the fact that Edward, Carlisle, Jasper and Emmett were struggling to keep up.

'_EMBRY! DON'T GIVE UP!' _I shouted as loudly as I could inside my head. The smell was getting stronger and stronger now, 4 different scents mingled together. There was no reply from Embry.

I finally reached the clearing that Embry's scent led me to. Then I saw it. The creature.

There were 4 of them together, but I could only see one. The one that was currently draining the life from my best friend. I snarled furiously. The creature looked up. I skidded to a halt, and so did the vampires. The vampires echoed my snarling.

The creature's face was hideous, and his mouth was dripping with blood. His cold piercing blue eyes glared devilishly, and his lips turned up in a smirk. He revealed what you would expect vampires from a story to have. Sharp, steely looking fangs. He hissed then twirled in a sudden motion so he was standing beside the other creatures. His short cut, dark blond hair was matted with blood and dirt. He wore very human clothing, but his face had a very canine look to it. I looked to his hands, and instead of hands, I saw claws protruding from what should be his fingernails. They were jagged, and even from 60 feet away, looked razor sharp.

The other creatures behind him looked almost exactly the same, with their paper white skin, even their evil grins were matching. The creature standing to the right of him was a little taller, gangly really, and had the appearance of being a little younger than the others. He had slick light blonde hair, and a pointed nose. He hissed as I pulled back my muzzle. One of the other creatures, the super vampires I guess you could call them, had dirty-blonde short hair, and ice cold blue eyes. His glare alone was terrifying. The last super vampire had such an angelic face, that the ugliness of it was bewildering, it was like an angel who had had his face mangled. He had almost white blonde curls, which framed his face in an afro-style, though the curls were very loose.

Before I could take another breath, the super vampires seemed to vanish. Nothing had moved, except they were gone. I looked up in the air, half expecting to see bats, but nothing.

"That's how fast they are." Edward told me, in response to my confusion. My hackles rose and I spit out another snarl at this information. No-one made any move to follow their scent. We were too terrified.

Then I saw.

I felt like I was walking in slow motion, to the dead body of my best friend. His eyes were still wide open in terror. I couldn't look at the lifeless body anymore. I turned away and sat down, keeping my head low. I saw drops of water falling from the end on my muzzle, and onto the leafy floor of the forest, and realized I was crying. _Edward, please close his eyes. _Was all I managed to think. My mind was like soup, I wasn't really thinking anything. I was just numb inside, like a shell.

I felt so cold inside. No anger, just depression swept through me like a furious storm. I didn't fight it though, I didn't have the strength to anymore. I whimpered. Not caring about the vampires watching, I phased back to my human form.

Naked, I walked across to where Embry's broken body lay. Tears still streaming, I picked him up, and began to walk back towards the Cullen's house. The vampires didn't speak to me, just looked at me with compassion and concern. I ignored them. _Can I have some clothes? _I thought towards Edward dazedly. I saw him nod empathetically out of the corner of my eye, then speed away, with the others right behind him. I kept walking at a slow human pace, looking ahead the whole time. I didn't care if the super vampires found me now. It didn't matter anymore to me.

After walking for a few minutes I came across a pain of black sweats folded neatly on a rock. They smelt of Sam, so I guess Sam and the other wolves knew about Embry. I wondered where they were.

One handed I continued to cradle Embry, as I put the sweats on, then kept on walking. I finally reached the large house, where everyone was gathered outside silently. Even all the wolves were there.

"I'm so sorry Jacob." Sam comforted me. Quil looked just as anguished as I did, tears rolling down his thick set face. All the other wolves stood silently, their heads bent down in mourning. Embry was a great person, always friendly. Everyone had come to like him.

"I'm sorry." Nessie mouthed at me apologetically.

I placed Embry gently down on a large rock bed. I didn't know what to do with myself, I didn't know what to do anymore. I felt... so horrible. I turned on my heels and ran flat out into the forest. When I was at the deepest part of the forest I knew of, I sat down and sobbed.

**Bella:**

Poor Jacob. We hadn't spoken in a while, so I didn't feel I could comfort him. We had spoken... just hadn't been friendly. Vampire and werewolf. Not two people. Everything used to be so easy. Now it was difficult.

Once Jacob had gone, we all went back inside, only the wolves stayed outside. Nessie nestled into my side as we sat together on one of the remaining sofas. The one Jacob had destroyed had been forgotten.

Whilst the boys were gone, we all ran to the top floor of the large house, looking out the windows for some sign of attack. When they came back –minus Jacob- we all feared the worst. We were all relieved when we found out he was okay, but shocked when we heard that Embry wasn't.

Alice sat down on the opposite side of Nessie.

"It's my entire fault!" She cried, as she put her head into her hands.

"Alice! How could you say that?" I questioned back in shock.

"If I could see these things I could stop the wolves dying! I'm useless."

"Alice, darling, it's not your fault! There's nothing any of us can do." Jasper reassured her, as he pulled her up from the sofa. She just leant into Jasper and wrapped her tiny arms round his waist.

Edward sat beside me, frowning. I leant into him for comfort. He stroked my cheek gently, which eased some of the worry. I looked down at Nessie, to see her fast asleep, her eyes were still crinkled up in pain. She'd been friends with Jacob so long, that now their pain was shared. Kiss or no kiss, that would never change. She was part of his life now.

We sat like that for most of the day, Nessie still sleeping in my arms. Edward still stroking my face. If I could sleep, it felt as if I would. This day had been so exhausting. I turned and kissed Edward gently on the lips, then rested my head against his chest. Rosalie and Emmett stood together, hands locked, whilst Carlisle and Esme sat on the other sofa much like Edward and I.

We were all terrified.


	8. Invisible

**Invisible**

**Bella:**

The next two weeks had gone by painstakingly slowly; each day and night seemed to take forever.

Embry had been buried, alongside the mangled bodies of Collin and Becky, deep inside the forest, under a mound of beautiful wildflowers. There was a funeral which we attended, where Embry's mom was finally told about the world she thought she knew. Billy attended, as did the rest of the pack. Billy helped Embry's mom with the new information.

Plans were made, people – well, vampires – were called, but no conclusions had been come to. Carlisle and Edward speculated almost every night, about what these creatures could be. Edward couldn't help us, because they hadn't been thinking about that at the time. It was quite frustrating.

The latest theory, which seemed most likely, was that these were part-wolf, part-vampire. A strange hybrid. We had no idea how this could be possible, since a bite from a vampire to a wolf was deadly. How could something like this exist?

It felt a little like déjà vu, to everyone except Nessie. We were fighting another Ben again. They were thinking about each other, and their names were Ben, Charlie, Matt, and Jack. Their thoughts were barely human, they went on mostly animal instinct. Ben was the leader of the group, and he was the one who had killed Embry.

Jacob wasn't as depressed as he was before. He was around us a lot now, even though Nessie still avoided him like the plague. She was still very confused, Edward had told me, and hadn't forgiven him. She didn't want to make his pain worse though, and certainly didn't want him gone forever.

Alice was getting more and more depressed on the other hand. She felt she was useless, blind. It was true that we'd counted on her before, and she felt like she was failing us.

For the past week the Cullens and I had been trying to get in touch with any other vampires that we had fought with before. The Denali coven were going to make their way over in a day or two, Garrett still with Kate.

I thought it was sweet that he'd stayed with them. Kate needed someone after she saw Irina brutally killed by the Volturi, and Garrett seemed like her perfect match. He'd kept up with the vegetarian lifestyle, I was glad for him. He and Kate had gotten married a few years after they left us.

We'd called the British coven as well. We weren't sure if they'd be willing to come, under the circumstances. We barely knew them, and asking them to come with their lives in danger seemed wrong. It made me feel guilty, but we needed all the help we could get, we weren't sure how strong these creatures were.

Fortunately, they'd gotten tired of the unpredictable weather in England, they couldn't live normally. They wanted some change, and some new selection of food – well, everyone except Sarah, she was scared stiff from the sound of it. She only came because she couldn't bear to leave her sisters.

We'd made contact with the others of course, from the fight with the Volturi that would never leave our minds. The Irish coven were all in for coming, but storms had prevented them from coming sooner. They were due to arrive in a few days, like the Denali coven. The Egyptians... well Amun specifically, didn't want to come and risk their lives again. We understood, just wished they wouldn't have felt that way.

The Amazons were already here, with Nahuel and Huilen joining them. They were out hunting. I shuddered lightly remembering this fact, but they didn't like the idea of being unnatural – going against our nature and only feeding from animals. We'd asked them to g as far away as possible, we didn't want them anywhere near or in Forks.

We hadn't been able to contact any of the nomads, and Jasper didn't want Peter or Charlotte to come again. I was a little annoyed at his lack of optimism, he obviously didn't have much faith in us. Taking down four strange creatures shouldn't be too hard... should it? The problem was, we didn't know what they were capable of.

_Knock, knock_

A light tapping on the door woke me from my trance like state. I was sitting comfortable in Edwards's arms on a white love seat in the living room. Nessie flew to the door and wrenched it open, dazzling smile lighting up her face.

"Emma!" Nessie squealed in delight, pulling Emma into a hug.

"Hey Ness," Emma smiled. Her honey gold hair was flowing to her waist now, she'd been using her power I guessed. Helen was standing right behind her, her petite frame almost hidden. She'd cut her hair back to its regular style.

"Hi Bella," Sarah timidly smiled towards me, everyone including myself had gathered to greet and meet the newcomers. I smiled back with a small wave.

Behind Sarah were 3 new vampires that I didn't recognise, their mouths open with amazement. Helen stepped forward and introduced us.

"Everyone, these are our sisters. Grace..." she gestured, pointing to an exceptionally beautiful girl, who had ashy blond hair cut in a shaggy bob that reached her jaw line. She was wearing clothes Alice would approve of... wait, I glanced over at Alice who was appraising her... did approve of. "...Becky..." a very tall girl with glossy black hair that was pulled into a ponytail, waved at us, smiling tentatively. "...and Hannah." A very slender girl, with honey and golden toned hair down to her waist, grinned at us.

"It's nice to meet someone like us finally," Hannah smiled earnestly. "We've been so lonely in England, we have never encountered other vegetarians before there." She spoke with a British accent.

"Thank you so much for coming, we wouldn't ask this of anyone unless it was necessary." Carlisle told them in an apologetic tone. "Oh, how rude of me! I almost forgot to introduce ourselves." He laughed. He pointed the family out by name and the new girls didn't seem fazed by Nessie. I guess they'd already been told about her.

"Don't worry, we understand completely. We wouldn't want our friends to get hurt, and that's less likely to happen in larger numbers. Do you have any other friends coming?" Becky reassured and questioned.

"Yes, we have 9 other friends coming... plus 13 wolves that will help." Edward told them warily. I assumed he was waiting for their reaction.

"Wolves?" Helen asked in a puzzled tone, "Do you mean like actual wolves? I hope not, because we grabbed a snack on our way in."

"No, no, not like that," Emmett laughed, "They're shape shifters, they used to be enemies, but we have a strong truce now, and they want to help us. Don't worry, we'll explain later." He laughed again at their even more confused expressions.

Edward didn't laugh like the rest of the family, whilst the English nodded in understanding. He was frowning at Grace, deep in concentration. She was oblivious. I assumed he was listening to her thoughts, I'd have to ask him later what the problem was.

"So," Nessie began, "any more talents?" The girls laughed.

"Yes." Grace smiled.

"We decided to stay together once we found each other. We thought it would be safest to stay in a big group. We hated killing and we were so thirsty we turned on some deer. We found out then we could survive without human blood." Emma smiled as she spoke at the memory. "So anyway, our powers..." She grinned devilishly. "I think we should go outside to show you."

Edward laughed at her thoughts.

"What's so funny?" Sarah asked in confusion, her expression matched the other English vampires'.

"Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you. My dad can read minds." Nessie shrugged as if it wasn't important. The girl's jaws just fell open.

"Are you _kidding _me!" Helen gasped, "Amazing!" My dad chuckled at their astonished features.

"So let's go see these talents of yours," he chortled, ignoring the stares of shock. He made an 'after you' gesture, and let the girls lead the way into a suitable part of the outdoors. We were all very curious, so followed the girls outside.

I knew it was silly to ask, Edward would know, but I still felt I had to. "Remember that Nessie could still get hurt, is this going to be dangerous?" I asked anxiously, as we wandered at a mere human pace through the tall grasses leading to the forest.

The moon was just starting to rise, setting a subtle glow over the forest. The air was thick, and it felt like walking through cotton candy, it tasted just as sweet. The flowers releasing this magical scent, even to my vampire nose, were radiant in the moon's glimmer.

We finally reached a small clearing in the forest, where the girls came to a stop. Nessie was virtually bouncing with excitement.

"Don't worry Bella," Grace smiled, "No-one will get hurt."

If felt nice to get away from all the tension in the house, to relax and have a little fun, of course once Nessie fell asleep, it would be all business. For now though, I took Edwards hand and snuggled closer to him. I knew Edward was having Alice constantly keeping a look out for our futures, making sure none of them disappeared. She was sat nearby, her tiny hands pressed against her temples as she looked.

Everyone was gathered in a half-circle, like an audience. All we needed now was our main acts. We all wanted to see what their special skills were, we watched them curiously.

Grace finally danced forward, a smile bright and dazzling on her feminine face. She shot a final grin to the crowd, and then vanished. Every person watching he, which was everyone, gasped and took a step back in shock. I scanned the faces of my family, and they all seemed just as confused as me, except for Edward of course, he was already in on it. The English girls stood there grinning. Before I could ask Edward what had happened, Emmett's loud scream made me jump.

"What the – ARGHH!" His question was cut off by a scream, as he was thrown 10 feet into the air, and landed unceremoniously of his face in a puddle of mud. Grace seemed to appear out of thin air, right behind him, giggling.

Emmett jumped up and wiped the mud from his eyes. He looked completely and utterly gobsmacked. We all laughed at his expression. He was momentarily annoyed, then thawed out and grinned.

"Amazing!" he thundered in his deep voice.

"Sorry if I scared you," Grace laughed, a mocking edge to her melodic tone.

"I wasn't scared!" Emmett defended, still smiling.

"Babe, you're such a liar!" Rose joked, taking his hand. She stood her toes and kissed him on the cheek.

"That is astounding Grace..." Carlisle exclaimed, "The advantages that must give you..." Grace just shrugged modestly. If Grace wanted to fight with us, then at least she could have a benefit over the super vampires.

"So Hannah," Alice asked curiously, "What can you do?" I wondered mildly how she didn't already know... Nessie was there so maybe that was stopping her. She'd stopped looking into the future briefly, her inquisitiveness getting the better of her.

"...Well... no one is thirsty are you? Can you all control yourselves?" Hannah asked nervously.

"You can't summon humans can you?" Nessie joked. I didn't get it at first but remembered that Helen's ability to summon animals. We were hoping the amazing talents of these girls would help us with the... super vampires, as aptly named by Nessie.

"No... Just watch." She frowned in concentration and closed her eyes. Her honey and gold hair was blowing lightly in the breeze, which seemed to take a strange scent to it. Human. We all took a stunned step back when we watched Hannah.

Her skin was getting darker and darker – not black, just less pale – until she looked quite tanned. She opened her eyes and they were hazel green. She smelt mouth-wateringly human.

"As you can see, I can change into my human form. It doesn't work for very long, and hours is the most I can do." I could hear her heartbeat thudding uncomfortably, at the new work it was being forced to do. Blood was pushed through her system, her human eyes squinted into the slight darkness. When she spoke her hot breath blew more of her delicious scent across the sparse forest clearing.

The English girls looked completely at ease, we on the other hand, were struggling a little. Hannah's delectable scent had appeared out of no-where.

"No!" Edward snarled loudly enough to make everyone jump, we turned to see what he was glaring at with such a shocked expression.

Jasper was crouching down, ready to spring at Hannah. His eyes were midnight black, He hadn't hunted in a while.

He was about to make the move that would end Hannah's life... or would it? One thing was for certain, she looked terrified.

Sarah saw Jasper, ready to kill her sister... or whatever would happen to her, and shot her palm out so fast it was almost a blur. Flames seemed to fly out, like water from a hose, till they circled Jasper so he was trapped in a ring of fire. Sarah had obviously been working on her powers.

"Change back!" Esme shouted at Hannah in concern over the flames that encircled Jasper, who was snarling in anger.

"I can't!" she cried in terror, "I have to be relaxed!" Nessie ran over to Hannah, not in the act of hunting, but comforting. She picked her up in her arms and ran back to the house. I sped after her. Everyone behind me was just standing there, stunned.

When I reached the house, Hannah was crying into Nessie. Her human face looked so fragile.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't realize. I've ruined everything!" She sobbed. Nessie was soothing her as she cried her apologies, not looking at all uncomfortable with Hannah in her arms, but then again, Nessie was part human. Jasper probably felt awful right now, in all his years he'd never gotten full control.

When she stopped crying a few seconds later, she wiped her eyes then closed them. Her skin turned paler before my eyes, and she didn't smell human. Her heart stopped with a sudden jolt. She opened her eyes which were now liquid gold. Nessie let her down.

"Let's go back to the others," I told her as gently as I could, putting my hand on her arm soothingly. She nodded, her eyes full of unspoken apologies.

We raced back to the clearing, ghosting in the dark night, everyone was silently waiting for us. Jasper was standing with Alice, his head hung in shame and guilt. Only a burnt circle on the ground showed any evidence of what had happened before.

"I'm so sorry Hannah. I wasn't prepared and I should have been. Bella is much younger that I and she can control herself," he shook his head in disgust. "Please say you forgive me."

"Don't worry Jasper, all is forgiven." Hannah told Jasper sincerely. Becky's bright chirpy voice broke thorough the close situation.

"Let's see my talent now!" She laughed, stepping into the centre of the ring. She put her palms to the sky and grinned, tilting her head to the stars. Within a few moments big heavy drops of rain fell fast and furiously from the now purple clouded sky. A bright flash of lightning struck the ground a few metres from where Becky stood, followed by a huge booming roll of thunder. The wind screamed in our ears, and Nessie cringed into Edward's side.

"My hair!" Alice shrieked, as she took cover underneath the wide canopy of a tree. Rosalie was with her too. I just laughed.

"Amazing." Carlisle murmured. Becky grinned and pulled her hands down from the sky, the rain almost immediately stopped and the sky cleared. The moon was bright again, not covered by clouds, and the stars twinkled down at us.

I turned to Edward and kissed him lightly on the lips. We might just have a chance at surviving this. It seemed even as a vampire, my bad luck was unstoppable.


	9. Moments

**Moments**

**Bella:**

Once we'd seen the English girls' powers, we made our way back to the house. None of us felt like rushing, we were relaxing in each other's company. The starry night sky was like a canopy above us, a blanket of protection. For some eerie reason, I felt strangely safe right then, even with super vampire creatures somewhere in the night.

Everyone was relaxed, chatting and laughing- apart from Edward of course, who was very tense and constantly scanning the edges of the forest for some unseen danger. I couldn't really blame him though. Nessie was skipping and dancing alongside the English girls, beaming with joy. I took Edward's hand and rubbed the back of it with my thumb soothingly. He turned to look at me, his golden eyes were burning with hope.

"You think we have a chance then?" I asked him.

"With everyone's powers, taking down 4 creatures shouldn't be too difficult."

"So why did we invite so many vampires to come and help us?"

"Just... just in case," he sighed.

"By the way, I love you." I smiled at him.

"As I love you," he smiled my favourite crooked smile, he bronze hair was blowing a little in the sudden breeze that had picked up. He looked amazing.

I put my arms around his neck and pulled his face down to mine, I crushed my lips against his satin lips, his addictive drug taking full possession of me. It was just me and him, standing together.

We were broken apart by a huge flash of lightning that hit the ground not a meter from where we were standing. I jumped back in shock, just to see Becky grinning at me, he hand to the sky, and everyone else laughing. If I could have blushed, I would have.

Edward just put his arm around my waist and we walked on ahead of the others, as they followed behind and continued with their jokes and laughs. The white house appeared finally, a shining beacon in the middle of the forest. We all ran the rest of the way to the house, too impatient now.

"Nessie, let's get you to bed," I told her, "you must be tired, and Emma, Helen, Sarah, Hannah, Grace and Becky will still be here in the morning."

"Yeah..." she yawned hugely, her eyelids drooping. "I'm going to bed..." She made her way up the stairs, as slowly as she could, not wanting the let her new BFF's out of her sight.

"Night Nessie," everyone called. She still lingered on the stairs. I eyed Jasper meaningfully with a look that said _make her tired so she'll go to bed, we have things to discuss! _Well, maybe it didn't say that exactly, but Jasper got the idea and Ness yawned again. We heard her changing quickly then slip into bed. She started breathing slowly soon after that.

"She's asleep now," Edward told us quietly. "Let's talk." We all sat down, not for comfort but out of habit, the English followed our example.

"So what exactly is the problem, Edward?" Emma asked him.

"There are four creatures out there, as far as we know. They are killing wolves all over the area-"

"What do you mean about _wolves_? You never did explain." Grace cut in.

"These aren't real wolves, they are shape shifters. The form of wolf they take is just chance. We used to be enemies, but we have a strong truce at the moment. They can phase from wolf to human forms any time they want. They are strong and fast and quick healers... although they do stink a little. They have helped us in so many ways." Carlisle explained. The girls looked a little perturbed.

"So these wolves are being killed?" Emma asked.

"Yes, 3 have been killed already and 1 more was dangerously injured, although he has recovered now." Edward said.

"What can these creatures do?"

"They are like us, but faster, and stronger. They have some... wolf-type genes in them. They even have fangs." He smiled wryly as he described them. The girls looked at each other nervously, not sure what to make of the situation. Surprisingly it was Sarah who spoke first.

"I'll help you, you are my friends and no-one should hurt your friends, or even your friends' friends." Her voice rang clear and true, no trace of fear in her voice. The other English vampires looked at her, their mouths hanging open. Sarah was obviously the most shy of the group, and here she was, proclaiming she would fight with us.

"As will I, I don't what these things are, or what they're capable of, but they need to be stopped." Emma announced.

"Same here," Helen told us.

"And me," Hannah stated.

"Count me in!" Becky grinned. Everyone turned to look at Grace.

"Of course I'll help!" She smiled a little uneasily.

"Thank you so much," Carlisle told them compassionately. My shoulders felt a little lighter, knowing that we were that fraction safer, or at least, more likely to survive. A let out the breath I didn't realize I was holding in a huge sigh of thanks.

Everyone jumped up and I went over to hug the girls. "Thank you, I am more grateful than you can even imagine." I cried out whilst hugging Emma. I felt sudden waves of relief wash over me, and I knew it was nothing to do with Jasper.

"So what are we going to do now?" Rose asked once I'd let go of the girls, even Rose sounded relieved.

"Well, the girls need to get the creatures scent, just in case, and then I think we should have another search at first light," Edward announced.

"But what about Nessie?" I asked anxiously, "We can't leave her here unprotected!"

"Good point... there is no way we will take her with us... maybe we should call some of the wolves over?" Edward contemplated.

"No!" I told him furiously, shaking my head, "It's obvious the wolves are being targeted!" It was so apparent that these creatures were after the wolves, how could Edward not see that?

"I know love, but if a large group of them come together she'll be safer, the creatures won't attack at such a disadvantage, and we have to stick together as well." I guess he had thought about this... he was right, it was a good plan.

"Okay. You're right."

"For now, the girls do need to get the scent, so if everyone but Bella and I go out with the girls to find their scent. I don't care how old the scent is, do not follow it. Come back as soon as you can. Bella and I will stay here with Nessie, we will call you if there is a problem," Edward's silky voice commanded. Carlisle nodded.

"Let's go girls," Carlisle told them. They all flew out the door, Alice shooting me a fretful glance as she followed behind.

I looked at the clock on the wall, it was 3.30 am. Nessie was sound asleep upstairs, and probably would be until at least 10am. She always slept in, regardless of what was going on. A chuckled at the thought of school in a few years... that would be interesting. Edward looked at me curiously, but I just shook my head with a smile.

"Edward, why were you frowning at Grace earlier tonight?" I asked him, I was quite curious. It was probably something to do with her thoughts.

"Oh... it's nothing we need to worry about. So when should we call the wolves?" He was avoiding the question. I growled under my breath.

"Stop trying to change the subject and just tell me, Edward!" I demanded. He looked a little awkward, there was something he didn't want to tell me.

"Look it's not a problem, it was just a bit peculiar to hear it in Grace's thoughts." He looked like he was going to leave it at that, but the glare I gave him must have told him he'd better explain. Fast. "She just doesn't seem very loyal to the other girls, she was contemplating about whether it is worth it to stay."

"Oh," I didn't know what to say to that. At least it wasn't anything serious. "Okay."

"I have some good news for you though." He smiled, his golden eyes melting into mine.

"Tell me then," I murmured in between kissing his neck, I wrapped my arms round his neck, and locked my fingers together.

"Ben and Tia are coming to help us. Although Amun and Kebi didn't want them to, they disagreed, and are on their way. Alice saw it earlier, and I thought you'd like to know."

"Good," I grinned, "More help." I pulled him down onto the sofa, so we were sitting together. "You were right though, about calling the wolves. When should we do it?"

"Maybe a little later, they'll probably be asleep, or busy. I doubt they'd all be sleeping at the same time, they'd probably have some doing watches- for protection." That was logical, all the wolves had been quite highly strung recently. The last time we'd met, a few days ago actually, they stayed in large groups constantly, all completely terrified.

Again we had one of our moments, or at least I did, when it felt like you'd been disconnected from the world. I just listened to the steady heartbeat of my beautiful living, breathing daughter upstairs, and re-memorized every single contour of Edward's face, jaw line, chest. His eyes never left my face. I didn't need to re-memorize it, it was forever etched onto my brain, but it felt like something to be doing.

Some time had passed, I don't know how much, but some, and I heard familiar laughter getting closer and closer from the forest.

"They're back." I breathed, I'd let my worries get the better of me and was terrified something could happen to them.

"That's some strange scent you got out there," Becky commented as she strode into the hall, her long legs pushing her in front of the others.

"I'll say, what on earth could make that stench?" Helen agreed, theatrically plugging her nose. I made a weak attempt at laughing, whilst the others chuckled at her joke.

"Where did you find the scent?" Edward asked.

"We had to go almost to the edge of the old boundary line, up near the coast, before we even caught a whiff of it. Even so, it was long gone." Carlisle told us.

I glanced over at Grace, who had linked arms with Emma, grinning still from Helen's joke. She didn't _look _like she was being un-loyal, or plotting behind anyone's backs. I wonder why Edward had gotten that idea. She looked completely trustworthy.

My eyes flickered over to the clock again, and I gasped at the time. Was it _really _6.15? Or was I just imagining it? It didn't feel like it had been almost 3 hours.

"I'm going to call Jacob," I announced. I decided now was best time as ever. I peeked out the window as I danced over to the phone, and there was already a faint pink trace in the sky. I dialled the number and waited impatiently as it rang and rang, I was about to hang up and try Sam, when someone answered.

"_Hello?"_

"Hey Jake! It's Bella."

_Hi Bells, what can I do for you at this hour in the morning?" _He drawled sarcastically. I could almost picture him rolling his eyes. _"You do know I sleep?" _He chuckled.

"Yes Jake, I know! I was just calling to see if you and the boys could come and look after Nessie whilst we go have another hunt for these things?"

"_Now?"_

"Well, as soon as you can."

"_Does Nessie want me there?" _I could hear him yawning on the other end of the line, I wondered how much sleep he'd gotten recently.

"This isn't about what she wants, it's about her protection. Besides, I just want you and some others to keep an eye on her. We called in some help." I grinned and winked at the girls who were watching me as I spoke.

"_All the other wolves are talking with the elders, well apart from Seth and Leah who just ran home. I only just walked in the house myself! I'll go phase and ask Sam and a few others to meet me at your place in about 5 minutes. Is that 'kay?"_

"Perfect, Jake. Thanks, I'll see you soon. Please be careful on your way over, stay on the main roads, where people are and things?"

"_No problem, see you."_

"Bye." I put the phone back into the cradle. Everyone else in the room looked ready to go, after hearing the conversation. The girls hadn't smelt pure wolf before, and didn't look like they wanted to after what we'd said about it. They looked like they were itching to go.

"We ready?" Carlisle asked.

"I'm just going to write a note for Nessie, for when she wakes up. Besides, I think we should wait until Jake gets here." I ran upstairs, and grabbed a pen and paper from Esme's study. I quickly scrawled out my note.

_Nessie,_

_We've just gone out for a while, but we'll be back soon, so don't worry. Jake and his friends are here and will keep you safe. I love you,_

_Mom x _

Nessie would probably be mad we'd gone and left her with Jacob. She was a little awkward around him now. I guess she would tell me exactly how mad she was later. I placed the note on her bedside table, and kissed her forehead, as she stirred him her sleep. I searched quickly for a blanket and draped it over her. I ran back downstairs to my waiting family and friends.

"Eww! What _is _that?" Emma complained as I smelt Jacob running in, just a few moments later. I was used to his wet dog smell, like the scent of human blood, it didn't really bother me anymore, although human blood was a lot better.

"That's stinky wolf for you," Emmett chuckled, as the girls all plugged their noses.

Just that second Jacob ran in the door in his human form.

"I'm not the one who stinks, bloodsucker," Jacob joked and lightly punched Emmett on the arm. At the sight of Jacob, Emma's jaw seemed to have dropped open, as did the other girls. Even through vampire eyes, I guess he was still quite good looking. Edward laughed under his breath at the girls.

"Hi I'm Emma," she smiled at him, "and these are my sisters, Holy, Sarah, Grace, Becky, and Hannah." She reached out to shake his hand, and he took it. He shook hands with the other girls as well. They all recoiled slightly at his burning hand, but managed to compose themselves before he saw.

"I'm Jacob, nice to meet you." He told them in his deep throaty voice.

"Let's get going then," Edward announced with a chortle. We all nodded and followed him out the doorway with a flash.

"His skin was so hot!" Hannah commented to Emma as we flew through the thick forest, looking for a trail or scent.

"It wasn't just his skin that was hot!" Emma laughed back to her.


	10. Hostage

**Hostage**

**Jacob:**

I dreamt of Nessie. Again.

I had been, ever since I'd kissed her, and mainly I just watched her run from my room again and again, tears in her eyes. I felt like kicking myself for even considering telling her, and shooting myself for actually telling her.

There was an annoying noise in the back of my dream... it was a constant chiming... a ringing... I jumped with a start back into consciousness, only to realize the phone was ringing.

I'd walked in about 5 minutes ago, I figured out when I'd glanced at the clock on my dresser, it felt like I'd been sleeping for hours, it wasn't long enough though. Everyone was talking to the elders, my dad and old Quil, to see if there were any legends about creatures half-wolf, half-vampire. I hadn't taken a break in about 28 hours, running patrols, and was literally sent home before I collapsed.

I groggily picked up the phone, my eyelids felt like lead.

"Hello?" I grumbled into the phone.

"_Hey Jake! It's Bella." _Why on earth was Bella calling me? My curiosity was overturned by my exhaustion, so my answering tone was annoyed.

"Hi Bells, what can I do for you at this hour in the morning?"I rolled my eyes, even though I knew she couldn't see me "You do know I sleep?"I chuckled, my voice was laced with sarcasm, but I was so exhausted I didn't even care.

"_Yes Jake, I know! I was just calling to see if you and the boys could come and look after Nessie whilst we go have another hunt for these things?"_

"Now?" She must be crazy, and why would she want me to protect her? Why would _Edward _want me to protect her? Maybe he didn't… I mused silently, 'til I remembered the phone in my hands, and the faraway sounding voice on the other end.

"_Well, as soon as you can."_

"Does Nessie want me there?" Hope leaked into my voice, my thoughts. Maybe _she wanted _me. The hope vanished, when I realized it wasn't Nessie calling me, and it wasn't Nessie who wanted me. I yawned tiredly.

"_This isn't about what she wants, it's about her protection. Besides, I just want you and some others to keep an eye on her. We called in some help."_ She sounded like she was grinning on the other end of the line, I wondered why.

"All the other wolves are talking with the elders, well apart from Seth and Leah who just ran home. I only just walked in the house myself! I'll go phase and ask Sam and a few others to meet me at your place in about 5 minutes. Is that 'kay?"

"_Perfect, Jake. Thanks, I'll see you soon. Please be careful on your way over, stay on the main roads, where people are and things?"_

"No problem, see you."

"_Bye." _

I slammed the phone back into the cradle, and dragged myself out into the breezy night. It was 4.30 in the morning, and the moon the low in the sky. It looked like someone had taken a bite out of it, it was almost full, but not quite. It cast an ominous glow over the trees.

I closed my eyes, and almost forgot to open them again. I let the heat spread through my body, making me something different again. I shook out my coat, and yawned again.

'_Jake? What are you doing up?' _Sam asked me, wolf form. I assumed I'd have to drag myself over to the bonfire spot, where they were talking, to speak to Sam. _'I was just checking everything was okay with everyone.' _He explained as he listened to what I was thinking.

'Bella and the rest of the Cullens are taking some help out to look for the things again, and she wants babysitters for Nessie. Enter: the wolves.' I thought tiredly. Sam just chuckled.

'_I have some stuff to finish, but I'll be over to help you out soon with a few others.' _I kept up a steady pace towards the Cullen's house, the vampire stink getting closer and closer as I went. I trotted alongside the main road, but a few meters in, so the trees would hide me from any unwanted attention. Ugh. They had more stinky guests… but as long as Nessie was kept safe, I guessed I could live with it.

Sam eventually faded out, and I didn't pay attention to the conferring with the elders. They were getting no-where, and didn't seem like getting anywhere soon. I didn't know when Sam was coming, he said he'd be fast, and I didn't want it to be just me and Nessie. I wouldn't be able to protect her on my own… and it would be really awkward.

Gently, I eased myself into a jog, and began to see the lights of the Cullen house as I turned the bend to the driveway. Unfamiliar voices were murmuring quietly, as well as the familiar ones. I could hear Nessie's heartbeat somewhere in the house as well.

"Eww! What _is _that?" Someone complained as I was almost to the front porch. I assumed she was talking about me. I quickly phased and pulled on my sweatpants.

"That's stinky wolf for you," Emmett was guffawing as if it was the funniest thing in the world.

"I'm not the one who stinks, bloodsucker," I laughed, and hit him on the arm. He still laughed anyway. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw 6 new vampire girls, who hurried to introduce themselves. I shock their hands calmly. They were British… weird, Carlisle was British too so I guess he must have know some people. I'd probably hear the full story later though.

They all left pretty much as soon as I arrived, leaving me in a vampire house with my imprint sleeping just upstairs. My heart pined for her.

I flopped down onto a cream white sofa, new, I worked out. I guess they'd gotten a replacement from when Embry… I didn't want to think about that. My feelings on the whole situation were still a bit tender. He was my _best _friend, and now he was gone. Forever.

Grabbing the TV remote, I flicked onto the first thing I could find. It was some movie, I didn't really care. I just listened to the steady heart of Nessie above me. It was almost like a lullaby- thump-thump-thump-thump – a slow steady rhythm. Before I knew it, I was drifting off to sleep.

**Nessie:**

I woke up with a start, I have no idea why though. I didn't have a nightmare, nothing looked out of the ordinary in my room, and something just _felt _wrong. _Incomplete._

Pale light was filtering through the curtains, but it was barely bright enough to see. I heard birds outside my window, chirping away cheerfully. I reached over to flick my bedside lamp on, and came across a note.

_Nessie,_

_We've just gone out for a while, but we'll be back soon, so don't worry. Jake and his friends are here and will keep you safe. I love you,_

_Mom x _

Where would they have gone? I was really worried now, why would they all go? And leave me here? Alone with Jacob and his friends. Uh oh. The thought of being with Jacob since… since the kiss, was awkward. I didn't know what to say, I didn't want to lose him.

I pulled on some old jeans from the floor, and quickly pushed my arms through the sleeves of a t-shirt I grabbed from my dresser. I dragged a brush through my curls, and slowly made my way downstairs.

The first thing I heard on my way down was the TV, quietly playing some movie. The next thing I heard, and saw as I came to the bottom of the stairs, was Jacob. He was sprawled across the cream sofa, his bare feet were dirty, and his shaggy hair dishevelled. He looked so peaceful. He ruined the serenity of the moment by snoring loudly, he sounded like a chainsaw. Still, he looked calm and at ease. I briefly wondered where his friends were.

Maybe I did love him. But what about our friendship? The years of being together for fun, not romance? My head was jammed of so many emotions. I was shocked that after 2 weeks, I was still as confused as in the beginning. I had to get out of here, somewhere quiet, where I could think things through. I needed to be able to tell him exactly how I felt, I just needed to know how I _did _feel first.

I looked at the clock on the wall, and was surprised at the time. It was 6:30 in the morning. I never got up this early. I stood quietly for a few moments, deliberating on what to do.

A walk, I decided. The fresh air would help me think. I knew something was out there, so I would stay close to the house, close enough for someone to hear my screams if necessary. I grabbed a jacket from a hook near the door, and even though it was only a jacket it felt safe, comforting. I shrugged it on a walked briskly outside.

A few startled birds that was hopping on the lawn jumped up into the air, and flew to the trees, their shrieks filling the sky. It was breezy, a crisp October morning. It wasn't cold though, and I was perfectly happy strolling around the house.

I barely left the shadow of the house, just enjoying the morning, and being alone to think. I knew Jacob was meant to be in my life, but I wasn't sure how. He always held my hand, and hugged me, and helped me out, but did I want more than that? Immediately my head was filled with images of us together, a couple, his arm around my waist, his beautiful russet skin against my alabaster. Did I want that?

Frowning, I didn't keep my eyes on the scene in front of me, I wandered further into the depths of the forest. My bare feet felt no pain on the bracken and mossy ground I walked on, just the _snap-snap-snap _of the twigs breaking under my feet.

The memory I decided to relive, was the kiss. His hands had been so gentle, although the action was rough. A forced kiss. His lips were so tender, the way my heart seemed to thud against my chest when our lips met. In a good way.

Dad had told me about imprinting wolves, except he hadn't really mentioned me and Jacob. He'd told me about the way they would love you forever, no matter what, they'd just want to make you happy.

I sighed, and sat down on a tree stump, near me. Now that I knew I was the only one he'd ever want, ever truly love, did that affect my decision? Yes. It did.

There was no way I would have given my heart to someone who I didn't unalterably love me, someone who could forget me without a second glance. But I knew Jacob would always want me. My heart fluttered at the pleasure of telling him. I smiled, and knew I loved him. Completely and truly.

I got to my feet, grinning, only to notice I couldn't see the house anymore. I knew where it was, but I must have wandered too far off, too love-struck to notice where I was going. I smiled and shook my head at the realization. I'd always loved him. Just been afraid to admit it. I'd always loved it when he held his hand in mine, made me laugh, made me smile. In the almost 7 years I'd known him, I don't think he'd ever upset me.

Making my way back towards the house, a noise behind me made me jump. A hiss, and what sounded like 3 other quiet snarls echoing it. The wind was blowing into my face, blowing the scent of whatever was behind me away. I was afraid to turn round. The sound was so ferocious it couldn't have come from any animal.

The wind changed direction, suddenly, a sharp gust that let me smell the creatures. What was relief at knowledge of knowing the identity, turned to pure, unbridled fear. It wasn't a familiar scent, but I knew it well enough to know that whatever came with this scent, was most likely death and horror.

It was _them._

The creatures that had killed _my _Jacob's best friend. And now they were right behind me. I didn't know what to do, it felt like I was shaking from terror. Slowly, I turned around.

Facing me, with malicious expressions on their repulsive faces, were 4 super vampires. Their harsh sneer mixed with a canine fanged jaw and face. It was slightly pointed, like you'd see on a dog, or a wolf. Their eyes were bright blue, whether from chance, or how they were I didn't know.

And now they were just a few meters in front of me.

"W-w-what do you want?" I stuttered out, I could barely make my lips form the words I wanted to say.

One of the super vampires, looked like he was about to say something, he was tall and lanky, and had an almost pointed nose to match his face. One with a mass of white blonde curls smirked evilly at him and shook his head, whilst poking him playfully in the ribs. The lanky one jumped back as if he'd been shocked, but grinning, the manically evil looks on their faces terrified me. They laughed as if this was all fun and games. The leader of the group took a step closer to me, curling his razorblade claws, signalling me to come closer.

I turned to run.

With one quick swipe the leader flew his claws through the air, and clawed at the skin on my arm, leaving a huge gash- and me on the ground. I was confused and petrified. My skin was as impenetrable as vampire skin, but he'd cut right through it. Blood was oozing out the cut, it looked like it would never stop. I clamped my hand over it to stop some of the bleeding.

"We can't have you leaving now, can we?" The leader snarled at me, his fangs were bared, and I couldn't speak, let alone move. I just sat on the damp forest ground, trying to stifle the bleeding from my arm, and the screams that were about to escape my lips. Would a scream be a death sentence? I wasn't going to risk it.

"What do you want with me?" I asked again. My voice was stronger, but it still trembled. It was the leader who spoke again.

"Well, we feel that something is wrong around here… and we need you to fix it. Mommy and daddy dearest would do anything for you." He wailed in a sarcastic cry-baby voice.

"Why do you need m-me?"

"Like I said. They'd do anything for you, and we have something specific in mind. We need you to come with us now."

They were going to take me away? And what did they mean about needing me? As a hostage? What was their ransom then?

The leader took another step closer to me, his blue eyes glinting like steely water. I pushed myself away from him, fumbling on the dirty ground. My cut was starting to sting, it made me feel woozy.

"You can run all you want, but you need us for the antidote," another dirty blonde haired by snarled, as I tried to push myself again.

Antidote? They'd poisoned me? My veins felt ice cold, and I screamed as I felt a stabbing pain hit me right in the chest. It felt like all my ribs should have been broken, but they were still intact. Again, another stab. I clenched my teeth but still I screamed. The pain was unbearable, I felt like I was frozen solid.

The edges of the scene in front of seemed to wobble in and out of my focus, as the 4 super vampires came closer and closer. The white-blonde curly haired one grabbed me by the hair, whilst the others just snickered. Then slowly, but roughly, he started dragging me deeper into the forest.

This was it. My last chance.

I took a deep breath, then screamed at the top of my lungs, before hands were clamped over my mouth, and the scene in front of me went black, as the poison took a stronger hold on me.

I just prayed someone had heard me.


	11. Locked Away

**Locked Away**

Bella:

"Have you come across any fresh trails yet?" I called out into the weak light of the morning. It looked to be another foggy, overcast day. The mist was already descending onto the mossy forest floor. All I heard in reply to my question, was a few murmured 'no's' and one sigh of frustration. Mine.

"Wait! This one here is a few hours old!" Esme called from somewhere in the distance. She was maybe 500 meters away, and now I really concentrated, I could smell a trace of it blowing in the wind. Everyone eagerly ran to the sound of her voice.

"It heads off in the direction of the house, I think." Edward muttered anxiously. He was right. It made a straight course to the house, unless it changed direction at some point. We all mirrored his nervous expression.

"Let's follow it then." I spoke quickly; my voice was strained with nerves. We'd been searching for a few hours, and every trail we'd come across had been days if not _weeks _old. I set the pace without waiting for agreements, speeding ahead.

As my newborn strength had faded, I'd become almost as fast as Edward, with a little practice. Almost. He still managed to run beside me, and he wasn't even trying.

Following the trail we all realized it went right up to the house, not turning off as we'd all hoped, up to the front windows even. If my heart had been beating it would have stopped when I caught the next scent. Nessie.

"What was she doing out here?" Rosalie cried.

"Where is she now?" Alice moaned frantically, her eyes searching. "Nessie? Nessie where are you?"

"Where are the wolves? Jacob is the only one in the house." Carlisle growled. The only scents in the house were us and Nessie and Jake. The English girls' heads and eyes were wheeling as the searched for some sign of threat in the menacing surrounding forest.

Finally my fear broke through my frozen body.

"Nessie!" I screamed, hoping she could hear me, not caring if anyone else did. I hoped she would just skip out of the forest grinning, apologizing for losing track of time. Laughing at how worried we'd all been.

No-one came.

The next emotion that caught hold of me was rage. How could Jake have let this happen, and where were the other wolves I specifically asked for? How could he be so careless?

I stormed into the house, the back door was slightly ajar, and the air in my throat hitched when I realized that Nessie was probably the last to walk through this door. I sniff of the air confirmed this. No-one followed me into the house.

"Jacob Black," I snarled, as I came into the room. He was fast asleep and snoring on the living room sofa. He woke slightly as I spoke his name, yawning and rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah... yeah, I'm up," he yawned, obviously not aware of the situation. I had entrusted a job in him, to care for my daughter. It seemed like era's ago when we were laughing on the phone. It was only this morning.

"You have quite possibly single-handedly murdered my daughter!" I screeched. His eyes popped open in shock, and he didn't look so sleepy anymore. He looked completely wide awake.

"What?" He mumbled in confusion. I must have looked like I was about to kill him, because he took a precautionary step back as he jumped up from the sofa. He took a sniff at the air, and his expression turned horror-struck.

"No!" He mouthed, "No, no, no!" he repeated, shaking his head, tears in his black eyes. He was trembling and his hands were clenched into fists at his sides.

"Yes!" I snapped back in frustration, fear, and terror rolled in one. I felt shell shocked, like my surroundings weren't really there. I felt dizzy.

I'd lost my daughter. She was gone. Four weeks of my life I'd struggled to save her life and my own. I remembered these events with almost perfect clarity. I'd brought her into the world, and held onto her as fiercely as I could when the Volturi had tried to take her away. The edges of my reality seemed to blur away, until all I could see was a single memory, surrounded by blackness. My Nessie.

I felt a light tugging sensation on my arm, but it didn't feel connected to my body anymore. Something was roaring in my ears, it sounded like voices. Harder now. And the voices were louder, but they sounded further away.

"Bella!"

"What!" I yelped in shock. I looked round to see everyone crowding round me, and somehow I'd ended up on the floor. The room became clear again, and I could focus on the closest face to mine. Edward. He was looking into my eyes, full of worry. His hands were on my face. "What happened to me?" I sobbed.

"You passed out, love. Are you okay?" Edward caressed my cheek. I felt like I should make some kind of joke, about how I was the first vampire _I'd _ever heard of to do that. But this wasn't the time for jokes.

"Oh, Edward!" I sobbed, clutching at his shirt. I didn't ever want to let him go. I didn't want him to leave me. Ever. I also wanted to find the creatures that took my Nessie, and rip them limb from limb.

"Her scent goes deeper into the woods. She's not dead." He whispered in my ear, as his silky fingers traced my cheekbones. His words brought hope to my heart. I could see myself reflected in his golden irises. I looked encouraged, as if I had something to live for. I did.

"Well what are we waiting for?" I asked, as I jumped to my feet, determination in my voice. "Let's-" Edward put a silencing finger to my lips before I could continue; he was glancing worriedly to the other side of the room. I followed his gaze to see what he was looking at.

Jacob was a mound of bristling fur, as he stood in the corner of the room. His black eyes were panicked, and this immediately worried me. Edward must be listening to something in Jacob's mind-link thoughts.

"No... Not again..." Edward breathed, as if in shock, at almost the exact same time Jacob threw his head back and howled – a mourning howl.

I didn't need an explanation as to what had happened.

"W-who?" I stuttered. Emma placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder, and Alice took my hand in hers. I braced myself for the name of whatever wolf had been killed now. Jacob sounder like he was choking with sobs in the corner. Edward seemed reluctant to answer me.

"It wasn't a wolf this time. It was... someone else." He told me very quietly. I breathed a sigh of relief, and then sucked one back in. Which of my friends could it have been? Maybe someone I knew well, caught in the wrong place at the same time?

"Tell me." I blurted out. I tried to look and sound fierce, but I knew there was a wobble in my voice, fear in my eyes.

"Charlie." He whispered.

"WHAT?" I choked out, my voice spluttering. My father? My father was... dead? "NO!" I shouted. "Someone else! Anyone but him!" My screams turned into more dry sobs. Edward put his hand on mine.

"I'm so sorry. I know it hurts, but Nessie still has a chance. We need to save her." He murmured into my ear soothingly. He was right. We had to go save our daughter, she may still have a chance. No. I shook the thought from my head. She _did_ still have a chance.

"Let's go." I whimpered. I focused for a moment on locking the pain away, the pain of my father's death, of my daughters disappearance, of my world crumbling around me once again. I had to think about that some other time. I couldn't afford a breakdown now.

I was embraced with hugs, and Jacob leant his burning head against my shoulder for a minute, before we raced into the shadowy forest, to save my daughter.


	12. Introductions

**Introductions**

**Renesmee:**

When I woke up, I was aware of a throbbing pain in my left forearm. My mouth felt dry and my head ached. I looked down to my arm, to see it wrapped with dirty bandages and caked with blood and dirt.

I was sitting on the damp forest floor, and my jeans were soaked from sitting for so long. No-one was in sight, but I sniffed the air to be sure. I couldn't smell even a trace of supervampire... how long had I been sitting here?

"So, Nessie, since we're going to be around each other for a while longer, you should probably know our names." One of the supervampires seemed to come out of no-where, his voice coming mysteriously from behind the tree I was leaning against, a small scream escaped through my lips. "I'm Ben," he walked round in front of me, and sneered at my probably terrified expression. He was the leader, I remembered, with the dark blonde hair. The three other supervampires walked around from behind me to stand by Ben.

"I'm Matt," the dirty-blonde haired boy told me. He looked more muscular than Ben, and his hair was a little different. "This is Charlie," he indicated with clawed fingers to the lanky boy with the pointed nose, "And this is Jack," I had to stop a whimper, when I saw the white-blonde curly haired boy who dragged me through the forest.

How could they be telling me this so calmly? I cowered against the mossy tree trunk. I was scared stiff at how civil they could be one moment, and so animal the next. These boys looked unstable, and that wasn't a comforting thought.

The other three supervampires wandered off into the surround forest, while Ben stood, still staring at me a few meters away. I couldn't look into those frightening icy eyes anymore.

"That doesn't look too comfortable," Ben sniggered, as he fumbled in his pocket. I just clutched my ankles and brought my knees to my chest, so I was curled up in a foetal position. I warily watched Ben.

Ben finally found what he was looking for in his tatty, ripped jeans pocket. A pair of glasses. I watched him with morbid curiosity as his placed the glasses on his canine... muzzle? He sat with his back against an old oak surrounded by ferns, and pulled a worn out book from underneath a rock. I watched in shock, as he crossed his legs, flicked the book open, and started reading.

Matt, Jack and Charlie, were vague shapes in the distance, their figures blurred by the mist and the ferns. Their voices floated on the wind over to me. It sounded like Matt and Jack were torturing a squirrel they'd found, and wanted to put it down Charlie's boxers. They were laughing and joking around, and Charlie's joking screams echoed over to me.

These creatures looked barely men, more like boys, yet they had obviously kidnapped me for a reason. What was it though? My head was so messed up right now, I couldn't think straight. I missed my family, my mom, my dad. I missed Jacob.

I rested my head on my knees and sobbed.

It must have been hours later when I heard voices again. No-one had moved, Matt and Jack were still laughing in the forest somewhere, and a slightly shaken Charlie was sitting in a nearby cave. He was walking slightly awkwardly. Ben was still reading, even in the dim light coming down from the near full moon, I could hardly see anything in the gloom.

"Charlie, light a fire, we don't want Nessie freezing to death now, do we?" Ben snapped from over his book. I shuddered, as I wondered how he knew my name.

Charlie ambled over to a ring of stones in the middle of the small clearing, where some dry wood sat, barely visible in the weak light. He made a spark using his claws, I think, and the spark caught on the dry leaves almost immediately. The fire greedily lapped up the dry wood, casting orange flickers of light round the forest.

"And get me wolf girl," He demanded. I turned my tear-stained head, to look at Charlie in confusion. Wolf girl? Did he mean me? I braced myself, but no-one made a move for me. Instead, Charlie strode over to the cave embedded in the rock face, and grabbed something that looked like a giant rock in the half-light. He passed it to Ben, who took a swig from the top, as if it were a mug, and set it down on the ground. So why was it named _Wolf Girl _if it was just a mug? The flames illuminated this strange object.

I screamed.

The lifeless, decaying head of Louise Fetolo was looking right at me. The top of her head and skull had been hacked away, exposing the congealing blood and brain in there, which Ben had just drunk from. Her cold, dead eyes, seemed to bore into mine.


	13. The Terms

**The Terms**

**Renesmee:**

I didn't sleep all night, I just sat, hunched over, trying to soak up some of the heat from the smouldering flames. I felt chilled to the bone, my legs felt like ice cubes. When Ben had said earlier that he didn't want me to freeze to death, a few things went through my mind. A- I don't actually get cold. B- I can't actually die. It made no sense then, but how could I be feeling like this? I felt like I was about to pass out, and I was _shivering._ Yes, shivering. I didn't think it was possible either. My teeth were chattering inside my skull.

"Matt, get Nessie a blanket." Ben murmured from where he was talking to Charlie. They were deep in conversation, and Jack was still somewhere in the forest. Matt stomped over to the cave and emerged with a blanket. He threw it at me, an expression of bitter hate painted across his face. He obviously didn't want to be doing things for me, helping me survive.

"T-thanky-you..." I chattered, but he just shot me a dirty look and went to sit by Ben. They all kept glancing at me disdainfully; I wondered what they were talking about.

"The effects of the poison have been stopped by the antidote we gave you earlier, and you will feel normal in a few hours, so stop moaning," Charlie snapped. I just wrapped myself up tightly, and tried to ignore the voices coming from a few meters away. I think I had only just fallen asleep, when I was woken up again by a loud voice.

"Don't fall asleep now; we have many things to talk about." Ben stated, Jack had re-emerged and was sitting beside Matt. "I'm sure you have a few questions." Why was he asking me if I wanted to ask anything? Surely I was just the prisoner? I took a deep breath, and tried to calm my frazzled nerves.

"How do you know my name?" I whimpered.

"Simple," Matt said. "We have been stalking you." He flashed his fangs in a menacing way as he finished speaking. It was terrifying. How long had they been stalking me?

"Why?" I asked quietly. Matt was one of the most terrifying creatures. Ben seemed strangely kind, Jack was the joker, and Charlie looked like the guy everyone picked on. Jack reminded me of Uncle Emmett. I sighed.

"Because something is very wrong here, Nessie," Ben told me, getting up from the floor, "and it takes far too much energy to sort it out ourselves. That's where you come in."

"What are you talking about?"

"The so-called 'werewolves'," Matt snapped at me. How could I not have seen it? But why did they not like the wolves?

"What about them?"

"They are imposters. Werewolves should be out killing vampires, not forming alliances. And they aren't even real werewolves. _Shape shifters._" Matt sniggered. "They give the Children of the Moon a bad name," he snarled.

"Why do you care?" I asked calmly. I wasn't going to lose my nerve in front of the creatures. Ben answered me almost immediately, determination in his voice.

"Vampires all over the world should be afraid of wolves. Afraid of the fact they might easily be able to hunt them down and kill them. Word has gotten around of this little 'truce' and people believe it is Children of the Moon that are making alliances, not these impostors!

We think the best solution would be to simply, wipe out the shape shifters. Word will spread they were killed. We are thinking of blaming their buddy vampires, saying they turned on the wolves. This way, the vampires will simply return to fearing us. Hopefully more than before," he finished with a steely glint in his eye, as he loomed over me.

"So why do you need me?" I asked again, I wanted an answer this time.

"We've already told you, you stupid girl," shockingly it was Charlie who spoke; I'd never heard him before. His voice was deep and monotone, and mind-numbing. Charlie turned away from me with a sigh.

"It is much too time consuming to hunt down these fakes one by one. We are holding you hostage. We will return you safely to your family, in return for all the wolves' lives," Ben told me. I just stared uncomprehendingly in shock. They wanted to kill my Jacob, and the rest of the wolves? I wouldn't let it happen.

"But won't my family just find me anyway; they will be looking for me."

"We know that, but we have something they don't have," Ben droned as he circled me. "We can cloak our scent; make it disappear as if it was never there whenever we want. To them, right now we don't exist. They will never find us, even if they search every inch of the forest." Ben laughed manically, completing the effect of a madman.

"How will my family know about the terms of my hostage situation?"

"We left... a message for them..." I didn't even want to know what that was.

**Bella:**

"Everyone, wait!" Alice shouted. We had taken literally one step towards the forest. How could we keep stopping? We would never reach Nessie. I sighed in desperation.

"What is it Alice?" Becky asked. Alice's' eyes were glazed over, and I instantly realized she was having a vision. Edward was staring at her, a look of pure shock and wonder on his face.

"What is it?" We all chorused together. Alice returned to the present, she looked as if she wanted to both laugh and cry at the same time. I walked over and touched her arm.

"Alice, please tell us," I begged.

"I saw them."

"Who?"

"The supervampires." We all stood, mouths open, in shock. "They are in a clearing, somewhere in the forest. Nessie is with them. She's alive." Alice was obviously getting a feel with the supervampires and Nessie. "It was very blurry, but I could see them talking to her, I couldn't hear what they were saying though." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. At least it was some form of news, that Nessie was at least safe for now. We all cheered Alice, and she half-smiled. Jacob just snarled, pepped up even further for a fight.

Dusk was beginning to set in, casting long shadows at the base of the trees. Everyone was talking excitedly about Alice's vision, and she was trying to see if she could see anything else.

_Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing! Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!_

A shrill and demanding cell phone started ringing in Edward's pocket; he picked it up and put it to his ear. We all stopped talking to hear the conversation.

"Hello?"

'_Edward, it's Tanya.'_

"Nice to hear from you! Where are you then?" He asked cheerily.

'_We can't come Edward. I'm sorry. We have spoken to our friends from Ireland as well.'_

"What? Why?" He stuttered.

'_It would be suicide; we have heard rumours of all the deaths, and what we are up against. We cannot win; this isn't like with the Volturi. We're sorry.'_

"Don't worry. We understand," he told her morosely. Although he sounded sincere and understanding, his eyes told a different story. They were lit with rage. Every vampire standing with us was staring at the phone in disbelief, and Jacob was snarling quietly.

'_I'm sorry, good luck, and goodbye.' _The phone went dead. Nobody moved, we all stood like statues. Did they really have so little faith in us? Would they abandon us like this? Unfortunately we all knew the answer. Yes.

"There is no need to worry. We can handle these four creatures. There are eight Cullens, six British, the thirteen wolves, and the five Amazonians to help. That is thirty-two against four. No. Need. To Panic." Carlisle stated calmly. Everyone nodded determinedly. Wait a minute...

"Where are the Amazonians?" I asked. I looked to see confusion on my families' faces. It seemed we had all forgotten about them. "Can you see them Alice?" She put a finger in the air to signal quiet.

"What!" Edward shouted. We all jumped as the stillness of the approaching darkness was broken by his roar. Alice was shaking her head in distress.

"They're... swimming... away," she finally muttered. "Swimming back home, but Nahuel isn't with them..." her eyes returned to their glazed state. Her eyebrows scrunched together and she clenched her teeth as she tried to concentrate. Her eyes burst open in shock. "Nahuel is dead." Nobody spoke.

"How did he die?" Emmett asked.

"I can see his broken body on the forest floor, I don't know where it is though. I think it may have been the supervampires. The Amazonians were threatened, and Nahuel killed. The Amazonians got scared and ran. As much as they love Nessie, they too, much think it would be risking their lives, when there is no hope."

"Twenty-seven against four. This will be no problem, if we work as a team, and stay together." Carlisle told us. "But if any of you feel that there is no hope, and do not wish to be a part of this battle, then you may return home. We will understand."

"Well, I'm not sure it would be such a good idea-" Grace stopped speaking as the five other British girl turned to glare at her in shock. "...to not try and call anyone else..."she finished lamely, but Edward stood stiffly by my side. I knew he had heard what she was thinking. I looked up at him, with a 'tell me later' look. He nodded subtly.

"Jacob?" Carlisle asked, Jacob nodded to signal he was listening. "Do the rest of the wolves want to get involved in this?" Edward chucked as he listened to whatever the wolves were thinking.

"I think that's a yes, Carlisle," Edward laughed, Jacob gave a throaty chuckle.

"Well... we should go now," I reminded them, trying to ignore what had just happened with Grace. I wasn't sure about her... Everyone nodded in agreement, and we walked on into the forest. Darkness was falling quickly, the shadows in the forest would have looked so threatening to any human eyes, but vampire eyes let me see everything.

Everyone was silent, as we strained our ears to hear anything in the dense forest. All I heard were the sounds of small creatures in the undergrowth.

"So... are you sure Nahuel is dead?" I asked uncertainly.

"I think so," Alice murmured, "I saw him on the floor, and he was covered in blood. He wasn't moving either." The wind whipped at our faces, and I didn't want to move my eyes from the forest even for a second, I couldn't see Alice's expression. She sounded reserved.

"Why would they kill him though?" Esme asked.

"Maybe he got in the way?" Edward contemplated, "That seems like the only reason they're killing anyone but the wolves, and I'm not-" Edward stopped talking abruptly as a familiar scent hit our noses. Nahuel. Everyone slowed to a hesitative walk. Jacob led the way, walking in front of us, we gathered in almost a line behind him.

Jacob howled suddenly, and we all took a sharp intake of breath when we saw what it was. Nahuel's broken body was lying on the forest floor, his blood pooled around him. He had obviously been dead for quite some time, and we knew that, but it was still a shock to see him like that.

"What... what's that on this chest?" Emma asked shakily. I looked closer, and on the firm skin there, a message had been carved.

_Your daughter lies with us, and unless we have all the wolves meet us in the forest by St. Ben beach by midnight tonight, she will die. Only the wolves must come, and they must not resist._

Jacob was snarling, the fur on the back of his neck standing on end.

"Jacob is going to go, all the wolves are going with him. He cares for Nessie too much," Edward told us. "He doesn't care what happens to him, as long as Nessie will be okay."

"Jake, no! It's suicide, they'll tear you apart!" I begged him. In the distance I could hear the sound of approaching feet, big thumping hearts coming closer and closer, I knew it was the wolves, I could smell it.

Emmett and Jasper were quickly digging a small, modest grave for Nahuel, it was the only thing we could do for him right now. Gently they lowered the half-human, half-vampire body, down into the grave. It made me think of how fragile Nessie was, and how she could be killed just as easily. Jacob trotted quietly into some bushes, where I could hear him phasing. He reappeared, looking stressed, and sleepy.

"They're almost here," he grumbled morosely, but even as he spoke, thirteen huge wolves appeared behind him. Sam lead the way, his dark fur would have rendered him almost invisible to humans, only his eyes contrasted with the dark, glowing like lanterns. The wolves walked quickly into the bushes, and all reappeared in their human forms. They didn't look nervous at all, just ready for a fight.

"Before we do any strategy, I think we should say a few words for Nahuel," Carlisle said, gesturing to the mound of fresh earth surrounded by flowers. I knew he wasn't going to talk about Charlie... I still wasn't ready for that yet. I gave him a grateful half-smile.

"We never really knew you, Nahuel, but you were killed in a battle that wasn't yours, that was wrong," Sarah said solemnly, obviously speaking for all the English.

"You saved my daughter, and I am forever grateful," Edward murmured.

"I'm sorry you got caught up in this mess, I'm sorry you we killed because of your kind and compassionate heart," Carlisle said.

"You were a good man, you rescued Nessie from the Volturi, just by existing. Thank you," Jacob mumbled.

Everyone else murmured thanks to Nahuel, the Quileute boys and girls bowed their head respectfully, and we all had a moment's silence, to remember him. Just like we had all said, he was a good kind man that helped me and my family when we were in danger. I would always be thankful, I don't think I would ever forget what he had done for me. I decided enough time had passed, for me to speak again.

"Right... what are we going to do now?"


	14. Control

**Control**

**Bella:**

I glanced down quickly at the simple mother-of-pearl and silver watch Edward had given me for my first vampire birthday. It was 3:15 am, so we had 20 hours and 45 minutes left, to decide what to do- until they would kill Nessie unless we handed over the wolves.

"Bella, we are perfectly willing to go and see what they want, maybe they just want to talk," Same told me reassuringly. I internally scoffed. Looking at the other wolves, they were all nodding in agreement.

It felt like my world was falling apart at the seams, being ripped by these creatures, and there was nothing whatsoever that I could do about it. Edward was the only one that managed to keep it together for now. I clung onto his hand, and he rubbed soothing circles on the back of my hand with his thumb. He was tense with stress and anxiety- I could tell.

"Do you see anything, Alice?" I quietly asked my pixie-like step-sister. She closed her eyes, and put her palms against the sides of her face. As she worked harder she regained the same expression as earlier when she was looking for Nahuel. The struggle was obvious on her face. I knew she loved Nessie like a daughter, and was trying so hard to help.

Suddenly, both Edward and Alice gasped at the same time, and Alice's eyes flew open, disbelief etched across her features. In another quick moment they were having a conversation so fast even I had to focus to hear it.

"Around twenty... maybe more..." Alice stated.

"It can't be them, there is no way! They have never come across into these lands!" Edward almost shouted back. The scepticism was obvious in his tone, but worry was also there too.

"What else could they be?" Alice replied softly. "They were standing in the light of the full moon on St. Ben' Beach, and they were unlike any type of wolf I have ever seen. Plus-" Carlisle cut her off.

"Please tell us. What are they?" Carlisle asked hastily. Alice and Edward replied at the same time, in the same monotone voice I used all those years ago, telling Jake the Volturi were after us.

"The Children of the Moon."

Nobody spoke.

**Nessie:**

With shaky fingers I pulled a hair-tie from the pocket of my jeans. I scrunched my bronze curls into a loose ponytail, it was tender at the roots from where Jack had pulled it when they kidnapped me, and full of leaves and dirt. My mouth felt dry, and my throat burned faintly. I knew I would have to bring up the fact I was getting thirsty soon, but how would they react? I had no idea.

Ben was sitting a few meters away from me, and I could hear something approaching... lots of heartbeats, but it didn't smell human. It was wolfy again, but completely different to Jake's scent, sharper and not as warm.

Jack, Matt and Charlie broke through the trees into the clearing, followed by a large group of dishevelled looking humans. I realized they were the source of the wolfy smell. I counted to find 21 humans, and they all had the exact same trace-like expression. Their ages ranged from teenager, to adult, but there was something else that made them look all alike, it was their eyes. They were all slanted and canine looking, just like the super vampires'.

"Sit." Matt barked the order, and they all obediently sat on the forest floor, 10 meters away from me. The super vampires laughed, and Matt, Charlie and Jack came to sit with Ben.

The humans sitting down didn't talk, they were completely silent, and it was very unnerving. If I hadn't been able to see their chests' rise and fall to show they were breathing, or hear their hearts, I would assume they were dead.

"Who are they?" I asked, my curiosity taking over my terror for my captors.

"Reinforcements," Jack grinned, whilst baring his fangs menacingly, "Just in case your little friends aren't as compliant as we told them to be."

"But they're just human!" I blurted out, "there is no way they could defeat wolves or vampires!" I was so scared, maybe there was a reason they had all these... humans here. Slowly, Matt stood up and walked over to where I sat. He crouched down so he was eye level with me. Then he slapped me round the face.

"You haven't seen this world the way we see it, and what goes on out there. There are things much more terrifying than us and these guys here. You will never understand just exactly how much trouble you are in right now. I wouldn't be making anymore comments from now on if I were you, okay?" Matt grabbed my face so I was forced to look at him as he snarled each word at me. He pulled his hand away and stormed off to sit with the others again. He snickered when he looked over again. Jack and Charlie were smirking, but Ben was acting as if nothing had happened.

I turned away from their mocking expressions. My eyes welled up, and eventually the tears spilled down my cheeks. My sobs came out sounding pained and strangled; I felt the tender mark where Matt has slapped me. I closed my eyes tightly, away from the pale pink light that was shimmering faintly through the dark canopy, signalling dawn. I prayed sleep would take me soon.

In my dream I was walking alone in the forest, and bright light was filtering through the trees above me. A rustle on the edge of the small clearing I was in caught my attention, and I turned to see what it was.

A reddish-brown wolf was walking towards me, its deep black eyes gazing into mine, but it wasn't just any wolf, it was _my _wolf. Jacob. My heart leaped as he phased to human form in front of me, but somehow remained in his clothes – his usual sweats.

His dark shaggy hair fell like curtains round his muscular face, and he leant forward, till our noses were almost touching. Our lips were about to meet, when I looked into his eyes again, and jumped back in shock.

They were steely blue.

I took a few more steps backward, to see it was not Jake standing before me, but Ben, with Matt, Charlie and Jack right behind him, all flashing their fangs threateningly. Dark red blood dripped from their fangs and claws, down onto the dirt, and suddenly blood covered the forest floor. Blood seeped from the decaying bodies from the remaining 13 wolves, with Jacob right at my feet. This was no dream.

This was a nightmare.

Bright light against my eyelids brought me back into consciousness. It must be late morning, I decided after a quick glance at the position of the sun through the trees. Gladly, I felt myself again, I couldn't feel the poison in my veins anymore. I ran my hands quickly through my greasy hair, pulling out leaves and dirt, trying to make it look a little more normal.

Looking around me, I saw I was alone. No supervampires, no 'reinforcements', no-one. Tentatively I stood up, stretching the muscles in my legs, which had been cramped up for too long. It felt like bliss.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of brown fur and my heart went into overdrive. I spun round only to see a young bear cautiously walking through the clearing, just in the shadow of the trees. It didn't seem to have noticed me. My breath came out in a huff of relief; my nightmare was still fresh on my mind.

Without thinking about it, I sprang for the young bear. It wheeled round in surprise. But crazy with thirst, I greedily gulped down the blood. I pushed the empty body from me, I felt much stronger now. But still nowhere near strong enough.

But was I fast enough? Could I run, now I was alone?

"Going somewhere?" A voice asked dryly from behind me. I was crouching in the edge of the undergrowth, deliberating on where to run. I turned to see Ben staring at me in amusement, his arms folded across his chest, and the claw like talons splayed menacingly. I could almost picture the red dripping from them.

"I was just…uh… thirsty…" I mumbled. I straightened up from my crouch and shuffled over to sit by the same tree as before. Ben chuckled dryly, and followed my movements with his steely eyes. I avoided his gaze as much as possible, it was… unsettling.

"Not long now." Ben muttered darkly. His voice was ominous; it made me scared of what he was talking about. I had to ask though.

"Until what?"

"Your death," he told me casually, as if he was telling me the time or her favourite colour. I gawped at him in shock. "That is, unless your friends pay up. If they give us no trouble you will be back home with your family." Home. Family. These words sounded so good to me, like the life preservation that stopped me slipping into the blackness of fear. They were the only thing that kept me hanging on to my life. That and Jacob.

"Where… where are the others?" I mumbled.

"They should be on their way soon, they had to hunt."

"Hunt?" I asked fearfully, my voice almost a squeak.

"They aren't mere humans, they are different. And besides, I wouldn't let Matt catch you asking all these questions, if I were you." Ben made it clear we were finished talking on the topic, and I strained my ears to hear some kind of approach through the murky forest.

Then it came. Running. Lots of footsteps getting closer and closer. Ben seemed perfectly relaxed, and by the sheer number of things I could hear running, I assumed it was just the 'reinforcements', Matt, Jack and Charlie. I slumped back against the damp tree trunk.

They all broke through the trees in a huge clump. All the other people were still in that strange silence. Some of their mouths were bloody, and I shuddered at what they could have just eaten. What innocent humans had been taken?

"Mary, Lauren, Chris, Josh," Ben snapped, calling over four of the 'humans' to use the term loosely. One was a beautiful brunette with curly hair, holding the hand of a lighter-brown haired boy. There was also a dark blonde with mad curls tied into a ponytail, and a short redhead boy behind them. Their strides were athletic, fluid. They were obviously ready for a battle. "Mary, is everyone ready for the possible fight tonight?" The brunette was the one that spoke.

"Yes, Ben. We are ready," she told him. Her voice sounded slightly foreign, but was clear and singing. She shot an anxious glance at the boy she was holding hands with. "How many are we against?"

"We are two short of even." Ben replied calmly, "but we have strength on our side so it should be no problem. Worried about Chris?" Ben laughed as he spoke, as if the idea of his pawns for battle having feelings for each other was amusing.

"I am merely worried for my brothers and sisters, it would be a loss to lose any of our number tonight," but as she spoke she glanced at Chris again. The love was clear in her eyes.

"If you say so," Ben chuckled again, and then he was serious. "Go talk with the others," he waved a hand submissively, and the four people moved to the rest of the group. I stared at them with wide eyes.

The supervampires talked in low, hushed voices, and I could occasionally pick out my own name. I tried as best as I could to listen to what they were saying, but to no avail. Only more mumbles, and something about the moon.

I was tracing patterns in the dirt beneath me, arranging the broken ferns into lines, organizing the small stones into colour groups… anything to clear my mind. I didn't want to think about anything now. I was only six years old for crying out loud! This was too much for me. When everything returned to normal I could be with Jacob, just the two of us together. Maybe I could even go to school, make some friends, and have a life! _Wait! _I had to stop myself. I had to live through tonight first.

A new sound made my head snap up in surprise, as did the scent that went along with it. It was light; fast feet, running through the bush. Ben and Matt got up and snarled together, Jack and Charlie looked uneasy. Now I recognized the scent, I felt like screaming with joy.

Grace.

"Wait. I come here in peace." The voice was so close and unexpected it made me jump. Before I knew it, Matt had his hands around my neck, his claws dangerously close to my jugular. I screamed in panic, but dirty hands clamped down over my mouth before the sound could really escape.

"Where are you?" Ben snarled. He was bent down, almost crouching, spinning in a slow circle as he sniffed the air. Grace must be using her power of invisibility, she must be here to rescue me!

"I would rather not reveal myself until you listen." The voice echoed from the darkness. Jack sprang at where the voice seemed to come from, but he found nothing. The group of people were standing uneasily together, their eyes wary. "Listen to me!" The voice demanded more sternly this time, although it seemed to come from the opposite side of the clearing.

"We will listen," Ben finally said cautiously. And there she was. Her gold hair was in its same short bob, her petite frame as beautiful as ever. It seemed like a lifetime since I'd seen her. She looked over to me and I expected her eyes to be warm and comforting.

I was wrong.

Her glare was cold, her hazel eyes bitter. She turned to Ben.

"I have come to fight with you. I see no way to succeed with the Cullens or my sisters. I have chosen my path and that will be with you." I tried to scream at her through the hand clamped over my lips, but my muffled cry didn't seem to affect her, her gaze as hateful as ever. Ben walked over so they were face to face, and held out his hand, she shook it with a dry smile. "You wouldn't believe how hard it has been to find you, I have been searching for hours." Ben chuckled.

"I guess only one short of even now," Ben laughed, and the others joined in. Matt released me and kicked me to the ground. I curled up in a ball, and for the millionth time in these past few days, I sobbed. I had been betrayed... I felt sick to my stomach.

**Bella:**

Losing Edward.

Losing Nessie.

Losing Jacob.

Three things I could never let happen. One of which had to happen. If we handed over the wolves there was no way they would come back alive. If we let nothing happen, Nessie would surely be killed... I shuddered at the thought. If we went into battle with these creatures, and their army or Children of the Moon, there was a possibility Edward and many more of my loved ones would be destroyed.

I was losing my grip on reality, on everything. My father was gone, my friends were gone, now I had to pick between my daughter, my best friend, and my husband too? If I could cry, I would curl up into a ball and sob for hours. But I didn't have hours. Dawn was already rising. Like sand in an hourglass, time was running out.

Losing Edward.

Losing Nessie.

Losing Jacob.

Edward and I stayed together, our fingers entwined, we couldn't bear to let go. Everyone was still in a few miles radius, still searching for and hint of a trail, listening for even the tiniest sound. Any indication at all.

Suddenly Edward's head snapped up, and without a word he picked me up in his arms and we ran through the forest. I didn't know where, but I was with Edward. We came to a large oak, where Emma, Helen, Sarah, Hannah and Becky were standing. Their expressions pained.

"Grace is gone," Emma choked out.

"Gone?" I repeated, dazed. Edward let me down but wrapped and arm around my waist. "What do you mean by 'gone' exactly?"

"She has left us. Fighting against... not with. She has turned traitor."


	15. Norway

**Norway**

**Bella:**

I stared out at the glittering trees, sparkling in the dim sunlight filtering through the clouds, the dew on the leaves making them shine. It was the wrong scene. Abandoned by all our friends, having my daughter abducted and held for ransom- where the ransom was my best friend – and being betrayed by someone we thought would help us. Not to mention the people already dead, including my father. It was wrong. The rain should be lashing down on my face, the wind howling in my ears, and worst of all, I should be crying. I would if I could, but I couldn't.

It was almost six pm. Six hours.

We _still _hadn't found anything. I felt like screaming. We had come across a faint trail of Grace that headed north, but then just vanished. It was so bizarre, as if she didn't exist. I would expect it if she went into a river, but she was slap bang in the middle of the forest.

The day had consisted of fruitless searching, contemplating, and more searching. It was earlier that day Emmett had came up with a good theory.

"Well, we know the Children of the Moon and the Super vampires are working together," he began, gaining everyone's attention, "and we also know that the Super vampires smell part wolf. Is it really so impossible that the super vampires are some mix of vampire and Child of the Moon?"

"Brilliant," Carlisle murmured, his eyes shining with pride, "I can't believe we didn't think of it before. A very good theory indeed," Carlisle clapped his son on the back, and Emmett shrugged. That had been the highlight of the day. The closer to anything we had gotten at least.

"I don't understand," I mumbled in frustration. I was walking with Edward and Jacob, everyone else was dotted around the forests of Forks and La Push, we were looking around the blank site where Grace vanished.. Edward squeezed my hand gently, and I turned to look at him. He had that 'deep in thought' expression. "Edward?" I questioned.

"Walk forward a few meters…" He gestured with his hand, and I obediently did as he asked and walked ten meters in the direction he pointed. "Hmmm… I wonder…" He stepped forward, and gently sniffed the air. He frowned and closed his eyes to concentrate. He sniffed again.

His eyes flew open in shock and his mouth formed a round 'O' shape. He reached for something in his pocket as quick as lightning and pulled out his small silver cell phone. Both Jacob and I were standing here getting more and more anxious by the minute, I had no idea what was going on.

"Alice," he snapped, "call everyone and get here _now. _Follow our scent in, we are close to the St. Ben beach, about 5 miles from the coast. I think we're onto something." Alice said something in reply – it sounded like a lot of screeching – and Edward snapped the phone shut.

I ran over to Edward as he was placing the phone back into his pocket. I couldn't stay away from him a moment longer. Beside me, Jacob growled quietly, he was just as confused as I was.

"Edward, please tell me what's going on," I pleaded with him. He turned to look at me, and locked his lips with mine with a fierce passion, his dark gold eyes burning with optimism. When he broke away, he wrapped his arm round my waist and put his lips to my ear.

"We_ are_ going to find Nessie tonight. I will make sure of it. And we won't be giving up the wolves either."

"Nessie? Nessie could be close by?"

"There is a possibility that she is-"

"Nessie!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, "Nessie, I love you!" I hoped she could hear me, wherever she was. "We will find you soon! I promise!" Beside me, Jacob howled.

**Nessie:**

When I woke up, the light was dimming slightly, different to the brightness of the midday sun. All I seemed to have do in the past few days was sleep and cry. But that was all I could do, that and wait for someone to come and rescue me.

Foolishly I was still clinging onto the hope that Grace was bluffing, she wasn't really fighting against her own family, she was going to secretly steal me away, and take me to my family again. But I knew I was wrong. Every look in those hard cold eyes confirmed that. Every glare, crude laugh when I cried in the night, snickering at my pain… there was no way she was faking that. Yet still I hoped for the impossible.

"Stop moaning," Grace snapped at me as I cried out quietly. It was too much pain to bear. It hurt to think of Jacob, and how I might never get to see him and tell him how I feel again. My heart seemed to twist and pull in a hundred different directions.

Grace was sitting across the clearing from me, she was on babysitting duty for now. I had no idea where the 'reinforcements' were, nor the super vampires. At least they weren't here, staring down at me. I was glad for their absence, but Grace was bitter and as if I had miraculously gained Uncle Jasper's talent, I could almost feel the hate pouring off her.

"Grace…" I asked quietly. She turned round and glared at me, hissing through her teeth.

"What!" She snarled. I couldn't stop the tears from falling down my cheeks and onto the damp forest floor.

"Why?" I mumbled. She just laughed, her… oh my goodness… her _bright red _eyes flashing at me. No. This couldn't be. No. No. No. No. I stared at her blankly, inside my mind was screaming. This was the final nail in my coffin. She wasn't going to turn around and save me. She has killed innocent humans.

I thought back to when I had met her, she seemed friendly, if a little reserved – I thought she was just shy – and although she was never the main focus, she laughed and was fun. No. No. No.

"My sisters and your little guard dogs and family have no chance," she told me simply, "sorry to break it to you, sweetie, but once your family and everyone are dead, we'll probably just kill you too." I stared at her open mouthed, my mouth not quite catching up with my brain. I wanted to scream at her, shout at her. I wanted to kill her.

My fury caught me off guard, and this resulted in more open mouthed-ness. That's when Ben, Matt, Jack and Charlie reappeared with the other humans.

What was the deal with these things anyway? Maybe if I was feeling brave enough later I would ask… but right now just didn't feel safe enough.

"Grace, leave the poor girl alone," Ben sighed, as if he was bored. He probably _was_ bored. Murder and abduction was just an average day for him, wasn't it? Grace scowled but looked away. I closed my eyes and rested my head on my knees.

I heard the faint _thumps _as all the humans and the super vampires sat down, that's all we did. Sit. There wasn't anything else to do in the damn forest. Just green green green, rain rain rain, cry cry cry. I was sick of it!

I wiped away furiously at the hot tears sliding down my cheeks, and held my head high. I wouldn't cry anymore, I would be strong, and brave, and… everything my family and friends were being right now. Probably out of their minds searching for me.

"Ickle Nessie, pretending to be brave?" Matt sneered in a baby voice. I ignored him. Unfortunately, he continued. "Aww, diddums, why don't you just curl up into a ball and cry yourself to sleep like you do every other night?" He laughed maliciously at me. Every inch of me was screaming at me to retaliate.

"Don't talk to me like that, Matt! You are always cruel and nasty. I may be your prisoner, but I will not allow you to act that way towards me," I snapped at him. He gasped in shock, fangs glinting in the soft light, hate clear on his face, and I instantly regretted my word. I braced myself for whatever he would do to me.

"Why you ignorant, stupid little bi-"

"Matt!" Ben snarled, "That is no way to talk to a lady." Matt growled but turned away from me, like the immature child he was. Ben sighed.

"Ben…?" I began, my voice shaking with nerves.

"Yes?" He asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Well…uh…" How should I phrase this? I should just go for it. I took a deep breath. "What are you?" Surprisingly he laughed. It wasn't unkindly, but it made me question his sanity too.

"Would you like to hear our story Nessie?" I gulped but nodded, and he continued. "Matt, Jack and I were born in 1985, and Charlie in 1986. We were 17 when we travelled together to Norway. It was out first real holiday without any adult supervision in a foreign country, and we were all thrilled. Even though none of us spoke a word of the language," he laughed briefly. "Between us we only had enough money for a cheap hotel, but we were happy enough.

It was our first night there, and we were staying in a hotel on the very outskirts of Oslo, and we decided to see how far a walk to the city centre was. We pulled on our jackets and off we went into the bitter night.

None of us realized how far the walk would really be, or even if we were travelling in the right direction. We must have been walking for about half an hour when this huge wolf appeared in the middle of the road. We were all terrified. It snarled at us and we ran."

"I think Charlie must have shit his pants," Jack interjected with a laugh. Charlie thumped him on the back of the head and Ben went on with his story.

"It wasn't until the next morning when we woke up in a hospital in Oslo. It was like _American Werewolf in London _except we were in Oslo. We'd been attacked and badly torn up.

"It was a week later when we were released, and we were taken back to the hotel to collect our things by taxi. The driver dropped us off outside the hotel, but there was a full moon that night, and it was just rising over the mountains.

"That night we found out what we'd become, werewolves, or Children of the Moon, and decided to hide out in the depths of the forests. Just after we made quick work of the taxi driver. His body was never found.

"We weren't like the werewolves you'd see on TV. Yes, the transformation was very painful, but once we were wolf we had full control over our bloodlust. We just chose not to control it.

"Anyway, 2 years later it was about five days until the full moon, and we were lighting a fire, when we were found by a vampire. We'd come across a few before, and they were easily defeated. We were so weak and human, that we couldn't fight him off, and he bit us. The burning was so strong we passed out. None of us remember the pain.

"We woke up three days later, looking like vampires. The only difference was, that we had blue eyes, and didn't need human blood, we just wanted it. We found we wanted _any _sort of blood at all really.

"Two days later, it was a full moon night coming up, and we were all unsure of whether we would still be Children of the Moon still or not. We were.

"It was more painful than ever, the urge to be wolf fighting with the hard impenetrable skin. We started to transform, but then we suddenly stopped."

"We were stuck between half-wolf-half-vampire," Jack spat ruefully, "we can't fit in anywhere, forever branded as outcasts. Unless we want to end up in a museum," he added sarcastically.

"But we are much stronger. Stronger than both wolves and vampires put together," Matt interjected.

"And faster," Charlie added.

"So why did you come to Forks?" I asked.

"We stayed in Norway for a while, but about six years ago we heard about the largest vampire coven in Europe, being defeated by your family. And their half human daughter and the 'guard dogs'. We didn't want to have wolves seen as pushovers, even though we weren't recognisable Children of the Moon. We left for America shortly after we heard," Ben explained.

"We had no idea where you were. It has taken us those six years to find you," Matt growled menacingly, "and now we have, we aren't going to let you go without a fight."

"A fight?" I asked, my voice raising in fear. Now that my fears had been confirmed, the prospect of a fight scared me even more. They were much stronger and faster, and although they were one person short of being even with my family, odds are they would win if it came to a battle. Well... that is assuming that the humans were as strong and fast as them...

"Don't be naive, Nessie, of course it will come to a fight," Ben stated. My throat felt dry and my pulse was even faster than it usually was. I needed to talk about something else.

"So... uh... who are they?" I asked, jabbing my finger in the direction of the 'reinforcements'. Ben smirked and the other super vampires were very smug.

"Well, we found out that our venom from our teeth can turn humans into Children of the Moon. Venom from our claws is just a poison," Matt laughed. Wait? What was he saying? That... these reinforcements were actually Children of the Moon? No. No. If they were... then my family were doomed.

"They're Children of the Moon?" I asked. _Please please please say no. _I chanted in my head again and again, in the immeasurable amount of time before he answered. Even though I knew the answer I couldn't help but pray. I seemed to be doing that a lot now.

"Of course."

Everything seemed to spin, I felt like I was going to throw up. Leave me! Save yourselves! I felt like screaming to the sky, just so all my loved ones could hear. I would rather die now, than have my family and friends, and... Jacob die. Then a single voice rang out, and everything became clear again.

"Nessie!" We all heard the faint call, our heads swivelling round to find the source of the voice. I would recognize that voice anywhere. "Nessie I love you! We will find you! I promise!" My mom. Ben cursed under his breath, the Children of the Moon were already on their feet in protective stances, Matt, Jack and Charlie were snarling.

For one brief, blissful moment, I was filled with joy and love, which only swelled when I heard the unmistakable howl that could only belong to Jacob.

Then the cloth came over my mouth and nose. I had no choice but the breath in the dense, sickly sweet scent filling my lungs. That was strange... I didn't know chloroform worked on vampires... Then everything went black.

Chloroform? Where was I? What was going on? I tried to sort through my jumbled and cloudy thoughts. I remembered chloroform... and... And mom! My mom and Jacob! But then the snarling, the anger, the cursing... then the chloroform and blackness. Where was I now?

I tentatively opened my eyes, and was confused by the solid wall I blackness in front of m eyes. I screamed in shock, but the sound came out muffled. This shocked me more and I tried to move my hands, but I couldn't. I was blindfolded, bound and gagged. I screamed again.

"Shut up you brat!" The harsh voice of Grace commanded me. The blindfold was ripped off, and replaced by a slap across my face. But once Grace moved away from my face, I screamed at what I could see.

We were in the forest somewhere, and I could hear and see the soft waves of the ocean hitting St. Ben beach. The light was fading. Fast. I could just about see the moon beginning to rise over the stretching horizon on the sea. The light of the moon grew brighter and brighter, until it was almost halfway uncovered.

"MAKE IT STOP!" Someone screamed. I turned to see all the Children of the Moon, still in human form, thrashing and writhing on the ground. Their faces were scrunched up in pain.

"Move away from each other, before you kill yourselves!" Ben shouted quickly from somewhere behind me. I couldn't look at him. My eyes were transfixed on the humans screaming out, and some managing to drag themselves away from each other.

"Too... too late..." I whispered to myself. "Too late."

The brunette, Mary I think, stood and screamed the most blood curdling scream you could ever imagine, then she seemed to explode. I remembered seeing the wolves phase so many times... but never like this. Where the girl Mary had once stood, now was a ragged looking dark coloured wolf. Her fur was long and wavy, and she was almost twice the size of Jacob, and her fangs twice as long and sharp. Her scream midway turned to a howl. Then she was quiet.

But no-one else was. The remaining twenty Children of the Moon were still screaming out. _Pop! Pop! Pop! _One by one they all changed into various sized Children of the Moon. They stood like an army, silently waiting for their next order.

I guessed that made Ben the general.


	16. Closer

**Closer**

**Bella:**

Once we had caught the rest of the Cullens and the English vampires up to speed (the wolves already knew), we all ran like lightning all over this blank area we were all completely baffled by. Nessie's and Grace's, and the supervampire's scents had become a little stronger at some parts, so we had focused on those areas. Then we found it. A doodle scrawled into the dirt, surrounded by meaningless shapes.

_Nessie 4 Jacob_

It was surrounded by a giant heart.

"Oh, Nessie…" I whispered to myself. "Nessie…" I couldn't take it anymore and buried myself in Edwards's chest.

Always close, but never close enough. Always slipping through our fingers. Edward held me close as I sobbed tearlessly into his chest. We thought we had found her. But we were wrong. And it was my entire fault.

"Bella, it has nothing to do with you," Edward soothed. Sometimes it felt like he could read my mind. "They probably caught our scent or something."

"N-n-no!" I wailed, "It was all because they heard me shout. They heard me and took her away, they fled."

"If even they did – which they didn't – then Jacob would be as much to blame as you." Jacob whined softly and nudged me with his paw.

"No. They heard me first."

"Bella. I will only say this again. There was nothing we could have done. You only beat me to calling out to Nessie. It wasn't your fault." Edward tilted my head up and kissed me on the forehead. "I love you Bella, and we will _never _stop searching. Never."

Jacob whined again, and Edward and I turned to look at him.

"If she wants it, then I won't object. You've always been here with us, searching for her. She would be lucky to have someone that cares for her as much as you do. Anyone would." Edward smiled and patted Jacob's furry shoulder. "But we need to find her first." I assumed Jacob was asking about the doodle in the ground.

"Bella, it's almost ten, we should look closer to the coast," Becky told me softly.

"If they wanted the wolves at midnight near St. Ben beach, then they would probably be making camp there. Becky is right," Emmett told us all. Everyone murmured in agreement.

"Should we split up, or stay together?" Esme asked thoughtfully, "Which would be safer?"

"Well... the full moon is out, and if what Alice saw is correct, there could be a giant pack of Children of the Moon out there somewhere..." Jasper pointed out. "We should stay together."

"Let's go," Carlisle announced, darting off into the forest. We all quickly followed him, the wolves easily keeping pace with us.

We stayed clear of St. Ben beach at first, but using our noses to catch the faint scents, quickly lead us there.

"What is that smell...?" A voice asked, floating through the darkness towards us.

"Vampires! Fall back!" I hissed as quietly as I could. The Cullens and English girls quickly retreated. They wanted the wolves, and it was clear in their 'message' that they didn't want the vampires interfering, otherwise Nessie would surely be killed.

"Well, well, well," a voice laughed, "it looks like our guests have come after all..."

**Jacob:**

"Vampires! Fall back!" Bella hissed beside me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her and Edward slowly dash further into the dark forest behind us, and heard the light steps of the other vampires join them.

_They'll kill Nessie if they know the vampires are with us _Seth thought.

_This was stupid! We should have been more cautious coming out here with the vampires, we could have run into Nessie's captors at any time and BANG Nessie would be dead. _Leah groaned. I snarled quietly.

_Shut up, Leah. There was nothing we could do. We have more important things to think about now. _I growled at her in my head.

_Yeah, as if you're not thinking about what Nessie wrote in the dirt every 5 seconds. _She retorted. Leah was a little better than usual, but she was still kinda cold sometimes. I heard her mental sigh.

_Head in the game, guys, they're getting closer. _Sam pointed out. We all listened carefully and could hear lots of quiet footsteps, and the soft hiss of sand under paws, and the huge hearts and heavy breathing.

_I guess the pixie leech was right about the Children of the Moon, _Robert murmured. We all moved forward, and our feet touched sand as we broke through the trees. We all snarled and growled simultaneously at what we saw.

_Oh my goodness… _William whined.

Around 20 Children of the Moon were standing in formation, various sizes and colours. But one thing was for certain. They were bigger than us. Much bigger. Their snarls echoed our own.

"J-j-jacob?" A faint voice whimpered from somewhere to my right. I turned my head, recognising the voice. My beautiful Nessie, still looked amazing in tattered jeans, a scruffy t-shirt, and a ripped jacket. Her curls hung limply, some scraped into a loose ponytail. But the one thing that would never change, were her big, beautiful brown eyes.

She was bound to a huge tree, her hands tied behind her back and a huge rope tied the whole way round the trunk. Her eyes filled with tears as I watched her. 'I'm so sorry' she mouthed at me. I bowed my head and tried to tell her that it was okay with my eyes.

"Look at that, how sweet!" A voice mocked. I turned and snarled at the creature in front of me. I let a roar rip through my bared teeth.

_Jacob, cool it!_ Sam shouted.

That _is the miserable excuse for a creature that killed Embry, _I growled at Sam. Quil realizing this, started snarling with me too, as did a few other members of the pack. _He will not leave here alive._

_We have to plan our attack,_ Sam warned, his mind focusing on the twenty-odd Children of the Moon growling at us, hackles risen on their necks.

_I'm going to talk to them in human form, watch my back while I go phase. _I ran 5 metres back into the forest and phased as quickly as I could, pulling the heat down into my core. I was human again, and I pulled on the sweats tied to my ankle.

_Edward? _I was sure he could hear me from this far away. _I'm gonna talk to these guys._ I spat out the work 'talk' in my head, mentally picturing myself actually ripping them to shreds._ If you hear any fighting starting, Nessie is tied to a tree on the edge of the forest. Grab her, and run. _

I turned back to the shore and strode out to the standoff on the beach. I glared at the leader, he just smirked.

"Back again?" He sneered. "Not running like your little wolf friend, are you? Well he can't run anymore. He's dead now." He smirked sarcastically.

I couldn't hold my rage in anymore, it burned inside me and boiled over. My clothes shredded around me as I changed into my wolf form, and sprang at the leader whom I hated so much with a furious roar.


	17. Possessed

**Possessed**

**Nessie:**

I watched in utter horror, as Jacob leaped to his death, and the death of everyone else. I screamed out in terror, which was lost in Jacob's snarling.

"No!" I screamed, which was strangely echoed some distance off into the woods. How odd… my mom! And dad! They dashed through the trees, at the same time Sam grabbed Jacob's leg with his teeth, and yanked him back. Ben stood there in a fighting stance, glaring at Jacob. I couldn't believe it! My parents and family, and all my English friends were suddenly here, fighting for me.

"It seems you didn't follow the rules we set," he smirked, "I'm sorry, we haven't been properly introduced," his voice was thick with sarcasm as he motioned towards my family and friends. "Well, there are consequences to not following the rules… But instead of making you watch me kill your darling daughter, I think we'll make her watch us kill you all first… then we shall kill her." My mom hissed through her teeth and my dad put his arm round her waist.

"Mom… Dad… I love you… I'm sorry…" I sobbed, knowing they could hear me. They looked over at me, love in their eyes. This was the final goodbye.

"Forward you go," Ben motioned with a clawed finger for the Children of the Moon to move. To kill everything I held dear. This was the end.

"NO!" The sudden shout made everyone turn in shock, which turned to panic as we saw Seth standing there, in his human form. Even the Children of the Moon stopped, unsure of what to do.

**Ben:**

I glanced over at the weak boy, barely strong enough to be called a man, trying to stop the inevitable from happening. Stupid human. Without a second glance, I waved Matt forward to remove him. His hissed gladly and started to stride towards the boy. I turned, only too happy to watch the fear in his eyes. It was my favourite part of it all, watching it dawn on them that they were going to die.

Wait…

~*~flashback~*~

"Laura, please tell me what's wrong! Why won't you talk to me?" I asked her softly, slipping my hand into hers. Her dark hair cascaded over her beautiful eyes, and I pushed it out of her face. "I love you Laura, you can tell me anything."

"Ben…" she sobbed and buried her face against my chest, "I'm… I'm pregnant…"

"What?" I stared blankly at the top of her head, as she continued to cry.

"I know you're only 16, and we've only been together for a few months… so I was scared what would happen when I told you." Scared? Why should she be scared? I tilted her head up and kissed her softly, caressing her face with my hands.

"Laura, I will love you no matter what. I am so happy you're pregnant," I beamed at her and she smiled weakly through the tears. Truth was, that I was happy, I couldn't be happier. I knew Laura would always be the one for me, I was sure I would propose to her someday.

"Really?"

"Really." I smiled, "so when is it due?"

"Five months. I don't know how I've managed to hide it from anyone for this long, especially my parents… I guess it's just a small baby…"

"I wouldn't care if it had three eyes and an extra head. I would love them all the same."

_-Five months later-_

The baby boy in my arms cried uselessly, as I glanced round uneasily for a nurse. I already loved him, with his jet-black tuft of hair sticking in all directions, and his big dark eyes. Just like his mother.

"Grahame…" I murmured softly to him. That's what Laura had said to me. Grahame for a boy, Beth for a girl, and I think the name Grahame fit him perfectly. I rocked him back and forth, and cradled him in my arms. Just 17, and with a kid already, but I didn't care what anyone thought. I was in love."

"Mr. Molley?" I turned to see a stout looking nurse looking at me sadly, apologies in her eyes. "Please, sit down. Someone will look after your son for you for a moment." Another nurse came and took Grahame from my arms, and I stood there vacantly.

"No, I'm fine, thank you, I'll stand. What's wrong? Is Laura okay?" I started to get more and more panicked, as the nurse's face became grave.

"I'm sorry Mr. Molley… but Laura died shortly after she gave birth to your son."

"Wh…what? Laura is… dead?" No. I couldn't believe it. The doctors had said it was difficult getting the baby out because she was so young, but I just assumed that was expected. Normal. Nothing serious.

How wrong I was. I couldn't take it anymore and slumped down into the hard plastic seat, and sobbed into my hands. The nurse's footsteps retreated down the hall, leaving me alone in my misery.

_-Two months later-_

"I'm sorry, but I can't stay anymore." I smiled and tickled Grahame who gurgled happily. As if he could understand me, there wasn't any point in telling, I just felt I had to say goodbye. Although I couldn't bear to leave my son, I felt I was too young and inexperienced to make a good father for him. And being around him reminded me too much of Laura. It would hurt to leave him, but what hurt more was looking into his eyes and seeing Laura.

I had found the perfect foster family for him, where he would be happy and cared for. He would grow up to live a happy life… without me.

"Come on, dude, we have to go soon unless we want to miss our flight to Norway," Matt patted me on the back and grinned. How was I to know then that a trip to Norway with my friends would be the end of my human life? I turned back to Grahame.

"I love you, you'll be happier without me. Goodbye." I kissed him on the forehead, squeezed him tightly, and then handed him back to the Nurse who smiled sympathetically as she took him.

Then I walked out of the hospital… never to see him again…

~*~end of flashback~*~

"NO!" I screamed at Matt, who was about to leap at the boy. Looking into his eyes, it felt like I was looking at Grahame… and Laura. In that moment, the kinder human side of me came back to life, and realized… everything.

Why should I take these sons and daughters from their mothers, just for my own cold hearted revenge? I sprang in between Matt and the boy, and both were so startled, neither of them made a move. The wolves on the other hand were snarling in confusion. I wanted so badly to turn and hug the boy, but that would be a step too far.

"We were wrong to do this. I see that now," I told Matt, Jack, Charlie, and Grace. They stared at me in utter disbelief, so I turned to the wolves and the vampires, "I am so sorry, I know what I have done will leave scars on your life, and I am ready to take whatever punishment you wish. I do not wish to hurt anyone."

A bronze haired vampire startled everyone by talking first.

"He truly is sorry, he no longer means us any harm." At his words everyone seemed to relax a little, towards me at least. I looked to Matt, who roared in outrage. Then the chaos began.

**Edward:**

Seth ran backward a few meters, until he was between the wolf pack and the vampires, then he focused for a moment and was wolf again. I saw Leah nudge Seth of the forehead with her nose. I was glad he was safe again, and so was she. Everyone was scolding Seth for phasing… everyone except Jacob, who was filled with hate towards Ben.

"You little shit!" Matt roared at Ben. He lunged, fangs bared, but Ben easily threw him away with his claws. The wolves, the rest of the vampires, the Children of the Moon and the rest of the super vampires watched in confusion as these two previous allies battled furiously against each other.

Then with one swift movement, Ben has the upper hand. He is clawing at Matt' face, shredding limbs and skin.

"Get the wolves and vampires! Go-" Matt screams, just before his throat is slashed and his voice is cut off. He still moves but his head is almost disconnected from his body. The Children of the Moon and the super vampires start the stride forward, Grace no-where to be seen. Literally.

"Helen!" Carlisle shouts, "can you control the Children of the Moon?"

"I can try!" She shouts back, "but I need to concentrate! Hannah, Sarah, help me!" Hannah and Sarah move to the edge of the shore with Helen, and stand either side of her petite form in protective stances. Sarah faces her palm forward, and flames shoot out, which Sarah circles round the trio. Then as quickly as they had jumped to action, the Children of the Moon are suddenly retreating, a blank look in their eyes.

While Bella and I ran towards Nessie, I watched as with a powerful flip of her wrist, Emma flicks a stone into the gap in Matt' neck. He jumped back in shock, and Ben pushed him down onto the sand.

"You traitor," he spits into Ben' face, his voice dry and weak. "Traitor!" Emma focuses on Matt for a second, then the stone isn't a stone, it's a boulder, and Matt' head is no longer connected to his body. Alice, Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie, Esme, and Carlisle are all attacking the super vampires, and it is no way a fair fight. Not with the wolves helping either.

It takes mere minutes for the super vampires to be completely destroyed, and then Ben is left alone. Sarah shoots some more flames at the bodies of Matt, Charlie, and Jack, until they are burnt to smoulders. I turn to Nessie.

"Daddy? Is it over?" She whimpers and I snap the robes tying her to the tree, and the ones binding her wrists together. I just pull her into my arms and cradle her close.

"I think it is, honey," I murmur to her, she just buries her face into my chest and cries. I savour her heat, like an open flame to ice. Bella wraps her arms around us both, and we just stand together, reunited at last.

"Daddy what is that? Daddy, stop it! DADDY!" As she screams. Her thoughts are full of pain and confusion, and she is suddenly pulled from my arms, ripped like a doll and carried through the air. She hangs suspended in mid-air, and there is just one explanation. Grace.

"Nobody move, or I will kill the stupid child!" Grace's voice echo's out of nowhere.

"Grace!" Five voices echo in utter disbelief. "Grace, why would you do that?" Hannah cried into the empty air.

"Why not?" She laughed sarcastically. Just meters from where Nessie floated, screaming, a bolt of lightning strikes the ground. Nessie screams in fear, and everyone turns to Becky. Her palm is outstretched, and her expression is hard, but sad. In her thoughts she is reluctant to hurt her sister, but feels she has no choice.

"Momma! Daddy! PLEASE!" She screams out in pain, and her hair is visible yanked, so hard her head flies back. "Grace, stop it!" She pleads.

_This can't happen… no… it's my entire fault… I have to stop it now! _Ben runs forward, towards where Nessie is floating.

"Grace! Let me help you!" He grins devilishly at the space under the floating body, but I see through the spoken lie. No one else does.

Jacob snarls defiantly and lunges for Ben.

"No! He's LYING!" I scream, but he doesn't hear. Ben doesn't fight, just gives up, and is ready to die. His left arm is missing, and his legs are ripped to shreds. "Jacob STOP!" I shout, but it's too late. Ben is dead.

In all the commotion, nobody notices when Alice, and the rest of my brothers and sisters lunge for the space underneath Nessie, and Rosalie snatches Nessie from Grace's arms. I hear a shrill scream and suddenly Grace is visible. Not much to see though… ripped to shreds. It's over now.

"JACOB!" I scream uselessly to where he is still ripping and snarling over the broken body of Ben. "It's over…" I glance over at the still vacant eyes of the Children of the Moon, and the scrunched up face of Helen, as she focused on controlling them.

"I… I can't do it anymore!" Helen sobbed, as she collapsed on the sand, Hannah and Sarah go down with her. Becky and Emma run over and they comfort each other. Even though Grace was evil, she was still their sister. It reminded me of Tanya and Kate, when Irina betrayed them.

"Rosalie!" Bella calls, where Renesmee is cradled in her arms. "Nessie!" We reach her and Bella grabs Nessie from Rose's arms.

"It's over now…" she soothes to Nessie as she sobs, "It's over…"


	18. Recovery

**Recovery**

**Nessie:**

I just cry my eyes out, clinging to my mom for dear life. I missed her so much, I thought we were all going to die. Then a miracle came and saved us. My mom soothes me and I feel gentle hands stroking my hair.

"I'm sorry mom, I love you," I apologize for the millionth time. She just smiles and kisses me on the forehead.

"Sweetie, it's okay. I love you and your dad and I would do anything for you," she murmurs to me. I hug her tighter for one moment, then stand on the ground and look around me.

"Are... are they safe?" I whisper fearfully, looking at the giant wolves sitting on the sand, just staring at us.

"Yes," dad tells me, "they were... brainwashed by the super vampires, but since Helen took control of them, they seem to have regained themselves. It's like they've been witnessing everything that their body was doing, trapped behind bars, unable to stop it. They think the super vampires were wrong, and behind their evil masks, they are actually quite compassionate."

"Wow..." I murmured, my curiosity overpowering my fear, "so what is gonna happen to them now?"

"I think they just want to be left alone. Did you know Children of the Moon can live on animals blood, just like us? This group here, are like the wolf version of vampires," he chuckled softly.

"So where are they going to go? Are they going to stay here, because I would rather they didn't… all the people – well wolves and vampires – we know…?" My mom's question trailed off, as she tried to be polite in case they could hear. I doubted they could, but I knew my mom well enough to know her worries.

"Well… I'm not sure… hmm…" He turned to look at the group of English girls, who were quietly comforting each other. "I wonder… Becky?"

"Yes?" She responded shakily. He motioned with a finger for her to come over, and she got up and danced lithely over. "What is it Edward?" She glanced uneasily at the horde of wolves staring intently at us.

"I was wondering, is there any way you could fully block the moon?" Ohh. Now I saw what he wanted Becky for.

"I can try…" She placed her hand in the air and pointed it towards the full bright moon. It was a clear, bright night, but suddenly the sky was darkening with clouds. Then the moon wasn't visible anymore, shrouded by so many wisps of black, no light could penetrate through. I was lucky I was half-vampire, so I could see in the blackness. I couldn't distinguish the sand from the sea anymore.

The Children of the Moon seemed to be shivering, blurring like the wolves when they were angry. Then _pop! _They suddenly all shrank into human form – fully clothed - their transformation so fast that I could have blinked and missed it.

"Wow!" I gasped, and heard some others behind me mirror it. "Becky, just… wow!" I stared in awe at the now human Children of the Moon watching us with shock painted across their features. Their head whipped from the moon to Becky, to us, and back again. Finally, one stepped forward.

She looked familiar, I stared at her closer and remembered she was one of the people that Ben had talked to. Her soft blonde curls framed her feminine face, and she smiled shyly. When she wasn't a huge snarling wolf… she was actually quite beautiful.

"Her name is Lauren," my dad whispered in my ear. Now I remembered… she'd been with Mary, and Chris, and that short redhead boy Josh…

"Thank you," she told us all sincerely, she locked eyes with all of us, one after the other, "from all of us… thank you." Carlisle stepped forward and shook her hand, the peacemaker as always.

"No problem," he smiled. "I hope you aren't afraid of us, we wish you no harm."

"No… we understand that what Ben was doing was wrong. We aren't like that at all. He stole us all one by one, from our homes all over the country, and he turned us into these… these monsters. He then brainwashed us and we couldn't stop him. We were his slaves." She turned to me, a pleading look in her eyes. "I hope you don't hate us, I speak for not only myself but all of us, we are so very sorry."

Momentarily I forgot to speak, my mouth unwilling to move. "Uh… no… it's okay…" I mumbled inelegantly. Her soft green eyes were almost hypnotic. Some part in the back of my mind wondered if being changed into a Child of the Moon was something similar to becoming a vampire – in the sense that it made you beautiful. I'd have to ask my dad about it at some point. The Children of the Moon fascinated me. I smiled at her, and she grinned back, obviously relieved.

"Do you wish to come back to our house with us? We'd love to talk to you, and help you find your way back into life?" Carlisle offered kindly. He was probably just as curious as I was… everyone probably was.

She turned back the other Children of the Moon who all nodded enthusiastically, it was almost comical but I resisted the urge to laugh.

"We'd love to," Lauren laughed. It seemed so odd that it was only about 30 minutes ago when a tense battle had erupted, and now everything was so calm and light hearted. My eyes flickered over to the wolves, some unconscious part of my mind telling me too. And there he was. Jacob.

"Jacob!" I yelled with such enthusiasm he looked confused. I broke away from my mom's grasp and sprinted straight towards Jacob in his human form. I leapt into his arms and cried into his chest, breathing in his woodsy scent.

"Ness, I'm so glad you're okay," he breathed into the top of my head. I turned my head to the side, to see everyone walking calmly into the trees in what I assumed was the direction of the house, very kindly giving Jake and I some time alone. All except my dad who was watching us warily, until my mom tugged him away. The English vampires trailed behind the group morosely, and I assumed Becky was maintaining the cover of the moon as they walked.

"Jacob, I need to talk to you," I towed him over to a large piece of driftwood, beached on the shore. Everywhere around us was inky black, only the faint glow from the stars provided any light, and it just left trembling dots of light reflected in the ocean. A blanket of stars just for us.

"Okay, Ness, but I need to talk to you first." He sat on the opposite edge of the log from me, as far away as he could possibly get, he didn't try to grab my hand, or sling his arm round my shoulders as he usually would, before I knew about the whole imprinting thing. I was really confused… was there such a thing as un-imprinting? Oh God, please no.

"W…what is it Jake?" My voice quivered as I spoke, and Jacob ran his hand through his shoulder length curtain of glossy black hair nervously.

"Okay, Ness. You know I love you, and always will love you… but I get the message now. I know you're safe and happy and that is enough for me. I'll leave you alone, move away, no matter how much it will hurt. I love you enough to get out of your life for you," he sounded like he was about to start crying, and I had a sudden overwhelming urge to laugh. As it was a small giggle escaped my lips. He looked up in confusion, hurt painted across his face.

"So…" I slid along the log until our knees were almost touching. "You still love me?" I looked up at Jacob into his dark mesmerising eyes, and he smiled wryly.

"I always will, Nessie," he told me solemnly "which is why I'm going to leave before I ruin your life."

"Jacob," I grabbed his hand from his lap and held it in both my own, "Jacob… Jake…" I took a deep breath, this was it. "I love you Jacob."

"What?"

"I've decided that I want to be with you, I've loved you all along, and I just couldn't see it. I had a lot of time to think while I was held hostage."

"So what you wrote in the dirt was true?"

"I can't believe you found that! But… yes it was true. All I want to do is be with you forever, and we have forever." I grinned up at him and then rested my head against his chest. The deep thudding of his heart steadily vibrated against his chest, which rose and fell with each breath he took.

"Oh Ness…" He arms pulled he in closer, and I could feel his lips in my hair. His hands stroked my face tenderly, I was so happy to finally be safe and sound in his arms. But I had not been waiting days for this.

I pulled myself out of his grip, and wrapped my arms around his neck. His eyes gazed into mine, and everything seemed to slow down. The soft waves crashing on the shore faded into background noise, and the only thing that mattered was me and him, and our hearts beating together. I pulled my face down to his, and our lips crashed together. My body was pressed against his, his hands on the small of my back holding me close. I never wanted it to end, I felt like we were both just one, completely moulded together.

We broke away gasping for air, and just sat together holding onto each other. I'd found him, and now I never wanted to let him go.


	19. Resolved

**Resolved**

**Bella:**

I watched as Nessie ran to Jacob and nestled herself in his arms, it was so obvious how much she loved him, and instead of feeling wary, I felt content. Nessie was in love with someone, who would always love her back, how could I be any happier for her? She was still my little girl, in my eyes she always would be, regardless of how old she looked, but when your daughter was happy, it gave you a satisfaction nothing else could.

"Should we intervene?" Edward whispered suspiciously, from this distance Nessie wouldn't hear us, but I didn't want to take any chances.

"Edward!" I smiled, giving him a playful smack on the shoulder, "she's grown up now, and you know Jacob will be good to her, just let them be." He sighed but let me tug him away, and we followed the footsteps of the rest of our group. If we couldn't all see in the dark, we would have been blind. The blocked moon let no light through, and we all walked through the invisible blackness.

"Ugh..." Edward muttered, shaking his head, I turned to stare curiously at him with questioning eyes, as we walked slowly hand in hand. "I can read minds a lot further than we can hear... and seeing my little girl like that is not something I ever really wanted to see." I was still I little confused and continued to stare at him, he sighed. "They kissed," he mumbled disgustedly.

"Aww!" I cooed, "I'm so glad she's happy!" I giggled and hugged Edward. "Aren't you?"

"I suppose... if I had to pick anyone for her to be with... I guess it would be Jacob..." he admitted with a lopsided smile. I pulled him down and kissed him hungrily, it was so long since I'd been this content with everything and Edward kissed me softly back.

"Bella, let's stop her for a while, I want to stay not too far from Nessie, in case she needs us," Edward smiled, pulling me down onto a fallen log beside him. I understood his concern, and relaxed into Edward side. His arm curled protectively around my waist, and the other hand stroking my hair.

"Do you think they'll get married?" I asked curiously, breaking the silence that had formed around us, it wasn't awkward, just comfortable.

"Well... I think it's a little soon, and we need to sort out... a few things before anything gets back to normal..." his tone was joking at first, but then was soft and caring. It all came crashing down. Dad.

"Oh my goodness..." I choked back a sob and buried my head into Edward's chest. I'd been so wrapped up in my own little bubble of bliss that everyone was safe again; my brain was protecting me for a short while from the truth of it all. My sobs echoed around the silent forest, and Edwards hand rubbed soothingly on my back. He was gone. Gone forever. Gone. Gone. The word reverberated around my head again and again, each time with a new stab of pain. Each time a memory of him, flashing before my eyes. Again and again and again.

"Mom?" A voice asked worriedly, and I turned to see Nessie standing hand in hand with Jacob, her face full of worry. "What's wrong?" I pulled Edward up with me, and ran over to wrap Nessie in a tight hug. She had a moment of happiness, and I wouldn't ruin it now for her. I tried to compose myself as best as I could, and gave Nessie an unsteady smile.

"It's fine, Ness, I just really missed you. I love you, honey." She returned the smile and pulled me into another hug.

"I missed you too Mom, I love you too." It felt so good to have her back in my arms, and as I looked over Nessie's shoulder Jacob mouthed 'are you okay?' I gave him a solemn nod, and he nodded in reply, already understanding. They would be so happy together. He got her so well.

"Ready to go back to the house?" Edward asked, with a gentle hug aimed at Nessie. She smiled and nodded as he released her from their embrace.

"Yeah… home sounds good."

**Nessie:**

It was true, home sounded so amazing. I was exhausted, but very happy. All the stress and worry was finally over, I could do almost anything now without fear of being slapped or hurt again. No danger left.

The gentle pressure of Jake's hand in mine was all I needed; everyone was safe, and apart from the small exception of the English vampires, happy.

_1 Week Later_

"I didn't know Charlie all that well, but he was always brave, and stuck by Bella through human and vampire," Emmett gave a watered-down version of his booming voice, and stepped back to let someone else speak.

"I loved Charlie like my own father. He always knew the right thing to do for his family, even in the wrong circumstances. He knew how to protect them, how to love them, he was a great man. I'm sorry you got tangled up into this mess, and I'm sorry you got killed because of it." Dad held his hand out for my mom, who clung onto it like it was the last rock in a stormy sea. She sobbed as he tried to comfort her as best he could.

"I love you, Dad," she cried, "you were always there for me, and you stayed when I wasn't even human… I really love you, and I'm so sorry," she choked out the final words of her speech then turned and buried her head into my dad's chest. It was my turn now.

The tears fell down my cheeks freely as I looked on at the delicate casket adorned with lilies. We were having a small private funeral in the vast back garden of the Cullen home. It was a small group, just a few of the wolves that really knew him, Sue, Billy, and the Cullen's. Everyone had given their speech but me.

Three little words kept running round my head over and over again, and I wanted to fall to the ground and sob until I felt forgiven. _My entire fault. _But I'd never be forgiven for what I'd done. If I hadn't wandered off into the forest in the immediate danger we were already in, none of this would have happened.

"Ness stop thinking like that, there is nothing we could have done. They were here and it could have been anyone they chose, stop berating yourself." My dad put his hand on my shoulder and rubbed it gently. I really couldn't take it anymore. The guilt was eating me inside out.

"Grandpa, I love you," I sobbed. I was pulled into the cool embrace of my parents, as I broke down completely. _My entire fault, all my fault, all my fault. _

"Shall we…?" Carlisle asked softly behind us, and I felt my dad nod quickly. Time to lower the coffin. Emmett and Jasper slowly lowered it into the grave, but I couldn't bear to look. My mom shook silently, as she was unable to cry real tears. I hear the soft thud of dirt on solid as they covered it up. It only took a few minutes.

"Why don't we leave you out here for a little while… come on guys lets go inside…" Esme gently made sure everyone but me, my mom, and my dad were still out here, and we sat on the slightly damp grass, looking at the freshly packed rectangle of earth on the lawn. Some daisies and other colourful flowers had been planted round the edge, and Esme had laid a bunch of Lilies on top of the grave. There was no marker, we didn't feel we should announce his death in the middle of the forest.

We'd held another funeral, for all his human friends. 'Victim of a mugging gone wrong, an interrupted robbery'… the rumours spread like wildfire but we just let them assume. The rest of the police had found no evidence for anything. The coffin was nailed shut, and was empty.

"Mom," I jumped up to my feet, and smoothed down my long black dress over my hips. "I'm gonna go for a walk… I won't be long… and I'll be close by." I walked away before she or my dad could stop me.

The sky was dark and looming, it looked like rain would start spilling down any moment, and a rumble of thunder and a flash of lightning broke the silence that filled the air.

"Nessie?" I looked up to see Jacob, standing a few feet away from me in a pristine black suit. He smiled gently and held his hand out to me. I stumbled over and rested my head against his chest. His hands rested lightly across my back.

"Jake…" I just mumbled his name, so happy he was here, so happy I got to keep him forever. I guess he understood I just needed to be held, because we stood there together, until the rain finally broke down from the clouds and pelted us with each drop. Spears of lightning flashed around us, illuminating us in the quickly approaching darkness.

Jacob pulled me under the shelter of a huge tree, but we were already drenched from head to toe. It was a good thing we both had such high temperatures, or we'd be getting seriously cold right then. Some rain still pierced its way through the leafy canopy, gently trickling down to pitter-patter on our heads.

"Nessie, it wasn't your fault, there was nothing anyone could have done, you need to stop blaming yourself," his tone was soft and kind, and for some reason it helped me understand. Like some magical effect, I didn't feel as guilty anymore. Maybe not liable for his murder, just guilty for worrying my parents, and family, and Jacob.

"I guess so… I'll really miss him."

"I know, Ness, I will too."

We were engulfed in calm for another few moments, no noise except the steady deep pounding of Jake's heart.

"I love you," I whispered into his chest.

"I love you too Nessie," he smiled, tilting my face up so he could look into my eyes, "I always will." And with that, he kissed me.


End file.
